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25 Awesome Gift Ideas for Designers & Developers

Dec 8 2009 by Shane Jeffers | 72 Comments

The holiday season of 2009 is upon us and if you’re not sure what to get your designer or developer friend, family member, and/or significant other, we’re here to help.

Be sure to add your own wish list for this holiday in the comments if they’re not on here!

25 Awesome Gift Ideas for Designers & Developers

Gear and Gadgets

1. iPhone ($99 – $299)

The iPhone will probably be the most requested gift of the season, but there’s a chance your designer or developer already has one because of its popularity in the industry, so make sure to check before you get one.

2. The Smashing Book (~$30)

The Smashing Book will be one of the most influential web design and development books to hit the market and will be a wonderful book to add to any designer or developer’s book collection.

3. Macbook Pro (starts at $1,199)

Apple’s new Macbook Pro is leaps and bounds above any other laptop in the market and is a favorite amongst the web professional crowd. It comes in three sizes: 13inch, 15inch, and 17inch.

4. Kindle 2 ($259)

The Kindle 2 lets you read e-books on its digital screen. It conveniently carries around your favorite books so that you can access them anytime and anywhere.

5. Notebooks: Moleskine (~$12) or Field Notes (~$10)

Moleskine Field Notes

These fanatically followed high-quality notebooks are popular gifts for creatives and can be used for numerous purposes such as sketches, idea gathering, and task management. They come in a variety of formats: lined, grid/graph paper, and lined.

6. A Wacom Tablet (starts at ~$200)

The Wacom tablet, a computer input device that features a pen and a drawing surface for digital illustration, is far superior to the traditional mouse when it comes to complex designs.

7. Magic Mouse ($69)

Apple’s revolutionary new multi-touch mouse is a great present for Mac users that will satisfy their functional and aesthetical demands.

8. USB coffee heater (~$9)

Designers and developers often love caffeinated hot drinks such as coffee and tea, and what better way to keep their drink warm than a portable USB-powered liquid warmer that plugs into their computer.

9. Paper Email (~$4)

Geeks who love writing on paper can find appreciation in this "old school" notebook that’s creatively designed as an email message.

10. App Pillows ($15)

These unique pillows are modeled after the icons of popular designer/developer desktop applications such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Illustrator.

11. G-drive (starts at $179)

G-technology makes outstanding external hard drives that are good-looking to boot, designers and developers can always use the extra hard drive space.

12. Typophile T-shirts (starts at $15)

Let your designers express their love for fonts and typography by giving them these trendy t-shirts.

13. IronKey (starts at $79)

IronKeys are secure portable USB drives that have a metallic-like, slick surface. They’re great for people who work intimately with computers.

14. Staple Free Stapler (~$10)

These staplers require no staples, and can be cool and environmentally friendly way of attaching paper together (such as invoices, sketches, wireframes, etc.).

15. Bose QuietComfort (~$300)

These headphones are truly high-end; they’re great for tuning out background noise when working in a noisy environment, and amazing for listening to music.

Subscriptions

16. Lynda.com subscription ($375 a year)

Lynda.com is one of the best online resources available, with video lessons and how-to’s for popular web technologies and desktop applications.

17. .NET Magazine (~$113 for 13 issues)

.NET Magazine is the premier top-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Each issue comes with a CD that contains useful resources to supplement the issue’s topics.

18. Layers (~$50 for two years)

Layers is a magazine that focuses on how-to’s for the popular Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.).

19. Digital Arts (~$195 a year)

Digital Arts is another top-notch magazine for digital creatives, featuring tips, inspiration, and relevant reviews. Each issue comes with a CD containing demos and freebies (stock photos, vectors, fonts, etc.) to keep your designer fully stocked with digital art resources.

20. Threadless monthly t-shirt ($200)

Threadless is a popular online retailer that sells creative and trendy t-shirts such gaming tees, which is a pastime common among designers and developers. The subscription will send your designer or developer a shirt every month for a year.

21. iStockphoto.com subscription (starts at ~$970)

iStockphoto.com is a place to get stock photos, something designers can’t get enough of. This gift is on the higher end, but will be very useful for work-related purposes.

Software

22. CSSEdit 2 (~$45)

By far one of the favorite CSS editors among designers and developers who use Apple computers, this application will give them great control over how their websites look.

23. Textmate (~$59)

Textmate

Textmate is a simple clean text editor that is supported by multiple languages for Mac users. It’s handy and amazing as a source code editor, supporting languages such as HTML, CSS, and PHP.

24. Coda ($99)

Coda is a great integrated development environment for Mac users that’s intuitive to use for developing/designing websites; if your designer/developer doesn’t have it yet, this would be a wonderful present to give.

25. Things ($~50)

This Mac app will keep your designer/developer organized so they can be at the family reunion on time. It also has a gorgeously simplistic user interface.

Got more gift ideas for designers and developers? Share them in the comments!

About the Author

Shane Jeffers is a Web Developer from Virginia Beach, VA. He has a unique passion for design trends and tutorials. He runs Three Styles, a blog that brings tutorials and information to web developers and designers. Connect with him via Twitter.

Gear and Gadgets

1. iPhone ($99 – $299)

2. The Smashing Book (~$30)

3. Macbook Pro (starts at $1,199)

4. Kindle 2 ($259)

5. Notebooks: Moleskine (~$12) or Field Notes (~$10)

6. A Wacom Tablet (starts at ~$200)

7. Magic Mouse ($69)

8. USB coffee heater (~$9)

9. Paper Email (~$4)

10. App Pillows ($15)

11. G-drive (starts at $179)

12. Typophile T-shirts (starts at $15)

13. IronKey (starts at $79)

14. Staple Free Stapler (~$10)

15. Bose QuietComfort (~$300)

Subscriptions

16. Lynda.com subscription ($375 a year)

17. .NET Magazine (~$113 for 13 issues)

18. Layers (~$50 for two years)

19. Digital Arts (~$195 a year)

20. Threadless monthly t-shirt ($200)

21. iStockphoto.com subscription (starts at ~$970)

Software

22. CSSEdit 2 (~$45)

23. Textmate (~$59)

24. Coda ($99)

25. Things ($~50)

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