A Holiday Gift Guide for Design and Tech Snobs
Because even in trying times, you still have loved ones on your shopping list.
The holidays are nigh. And if that information feels daunting, you’re not alone. With everything going on in the world, it’s now even harder to focus on finding the perfect gifts. How can you hit the stores when the very fabric of our democracy is threatened? Well, think of it this way: End-of-year festivities serve as a reminder to express just how grateful you are for the people closest to you — your family and friends. They’re an opportunity to break (just for a bit) from the petition signing, the political organizing, and the general despairing. They’re a chance to regain some normalcy during a cultural moment that is far from normal.
We fully support saying no to consumerism and making donations to organizations that need support instead of buying presents. But if you want to go the traditional route, too, we’d like to make your gift-buying process a little easier. We tapped the design-minded folks at Brooklyn-based digital agency Huge, Magenta’s parent company, to share the gifts they’re giving and what they’d like to get in return. (And yes, I threw in my own selections for good measure.) From posters for typophiles to tools for coffee connoisseurs, there’s something for everyone.
And happy holidays…there’s never been a better time to hit the egg nog.
Aether Cone, $51
Remember Aether Cone, the speaker/device running Rdio? Since Rdio shut down, the system became kind of useless, so with a last update Aether opened it up to other services, effectively making it yet another portable AirPlay/Bluetooth speaker. A very pretty one, though. Since the main selling point vanished, the price dropped dramatically.
Type Hype posters, $74
Type Hype is a neat little print shop from Berlin selling a wide range of accessories for all the type nerds out there. I’ve been eyeing their DIN Berlin poster series for a while now. Each piece is based on a single letter of the alphabet with a bit of additional flourish. Serious name envy guaranteed when looking at all those stellar designs which are not your first name initial. However, you could just go “fuck it” and pick any one you like, or maybe your partner’s initial appeals to you.
Naef Bauhaus Bauspiel, $155
These days, fun experiences for kids tend to be overstimulating and device-centric. My hope is by introducing simple beautiful objects early and often it may help build an appreciation for good design.
I love this Bauhaus toy remake. Utilitarian and beautiful. Selfishly, it looks dope sprawled out on my living room floor. My sons will play with this for hours, and it’s from 1923. Can’t beat that.
Leica X-E, $1,795
Like most designers, I tend to document everything, everywhere. This camera is less clunky than a DSLR for when you need to just grab and go. Still has great depth of field. Sensor is solid. A beautiful object as well.
Kuissential hand grinder, $35
AeroPress coffee maker, $30
Balzacs coffee beans, $14
My personal coffee kit. This complete set is a great gift for those of us who want to wake up in the morning with tingling taste buds. With the hand grinder, you can adjust the coarseness of the grind to get a clean cup, extracting the fullest flavor and taste from the beans. As one satisfied customer raved, “Highly recommended if you ever need a non-gross cup.”
Click and Grow, $60
I recently bought an herb garden kit from Amazon but I am constantly resuscitating the plants due to lack of water. With the Click and Grow, I can easily set and forget and reap the harvest, even if I have to be away for a long period.
Tinker Crate, $17/month for 12 months
For my nieces and nephews, I found these great little maker kits for kids from Kiwi Crate — new ones delivered monthly.
Saul Bass Vertigo poster, $3,236.52
Bass manages to stay true to his style of that era by stripping everything down to simple, strong shapes with minimal, bold colors. He then creates a slight imbalance of those elements, using irregular type and layered subjects over a pattern, capturing the unsteadiness of vertigo beautifully.
Texture subscriptions, $20 for three months
If I could take just one app to a desert island, this would be it. You can download ANY magazine on a tablet for a flat, monthly fee. And, you can comb through archives of past issues.
Hans Wegner Heart stacking chairs, $10,000 for four
These are beautiful, obviously. They are also perfect for my miniature studio apartment and, unlike the Eames molded plastic chairs, haven’t become a Pinterest cliché. I’ve searched high and low for a good, affordable reproduction of this three-legged chair design, and it just doesn’t exist.
Amazon Echo, $180
This is technology that’s made the leap from novelty to actually being useful. There are hundreds of “recipes” online to automate different processes within your home, and I’m very curious to learn what people who aren’t gadget geeks will use it for.
Polaroid Snap Instant Camera, $179.99
When’s the last time you printed a digital photo? Exactly. I don’t want to get things just because they’re nostalgic, but I miss the joy of seeing an old friend’s face on my refrigerator or a happy moment tumbling out of a drawer. It’s hard to justify in terms of utility, but it feels sad to send all our visual memories into a digital void where you never see them again.
FONBOOTH, $35
For my inclined-to-repeatedly-drop-their-phone-in-the-toilet friends and family. We already have them up in the Huge DC bathrooms. Not one dropped or broken phone since.
Deauville dog house, $231
I’d like this dog house as a gift I can give my chihuahua. He deserves an upgrade.
Moon night light, $11
My three-year-old son is obsessed with space and fights sleep. By letting him turn on the moon, I’m hoping to make bedtime a little more fun.
Samsung Serif TV, $1,500
By transforming a flat-screen TV into something of beauty, the brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec smacked down the ultimate design challenge.
Echo Dot, $50
If I hadn’t received the amazing Echo Dot as a gift, I may never have gotten one — and that’s how I know it’s a great gift. As far as presents go, this hits so many marks: compact, lovable, semi-affordable, and frivolous enough that people (especially outside the design/tech bubble) haven’t already rushed to buy it. Oh, and it’s a futuristic, life-changing, devilish little device. Bonus: It will only get more useful as more brands catch up to voice, so it’s a wise one-time investment. Everyone’s getting one.
Verso Radical Diary, $10
The 2017 Verso Radical Diary is a weekly planner notebook with a twist. Next to the days of the week, Verso (a political publisher that puts out incredible titles and is more important than ever) has designed a journal that includes milestones from the great protest movements in history, from the Russian Revolution to #blacklivesmatter. The only notebook to help you organize and stay organized at the same time.
Marimekko Rasymatto teapot, $155
It’s high-quality ceramic with timeless and fun Scandinavian design. When it’s not in use, it also looks great anywhere in the house. Most important, it makes a fine pot of tea and is easy to clean.
Thankful for Pizza sweatshirt, $79
A great reminder for us pizza lovers to be thankful whenever we wolf down a slice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late night snack.
Sense home energy monitor, $249
Sense is a great product that gives you actionable data to learn more about your home and electricity consumption. It’s smart-home data to control utility costs.
Pixel, $649 and up
I’m dying to get my hands on the new Pixel to use with my Google Project Fi mobile plan. It seems like a big step up for the Android experience. And I haven’t heard of these exploding on airplanes…
Lego Volkswagon T1 Camper Van, $120
For my kids (and me), I always come back to Lego around the holidays. Building with Lego keeps us busy during the slow days between Christmas and New Year. This year, we will build the VW bus.
Sennheiser Momentum Wireless earphones, $449.95
Due to some noisy construction in our Brooklyn office, I am craving some peace and quiet. This headset (with NoiseGuard) struck a chord with me, and it’s not a Bose or Beats.
Muji ultrasonic aroma diffuser, $69.50
Because everyone needs a little more zen in their life.
Leff Amsterdam bluetooth speaker, $189
A beautifully designed object that doesn’t look like just another piece of tech in my house.
C|M|Y|K color swatch calendar, $43
Perfect for the digital designer who misses the smell of freshly printed paper.
Neat ice kit, $80
A super-slick kit that everyone could live without but that my kitchen needs to bring in a craft-cocktail vibe.
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, $27.47
Lopez-Alt, of “Serious Eats” fame, really knows his shit and spends days experimenting with different techniques to find the best methods for home cooking.
Anova sous vide, $129
Perfect for evenly cooking steaks or most meats at a consistent temperature.
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, $11.90
After reading Tim Urban’s mind-blowing two-part series on artificial intelligence, I’ll be buying everyone this book on the inherent risks and opportunities of strong AI that serves as the backbone for much of Urban’s series. Once you’ve read it, it’s almost impossible to think about anything else.
Stingray Tree Tent, $520
Inspired by the Ewok tree village in Return of the Jedi, treehouse architects Tentsile combined tents and hammocks to create suspended living spaces. What better way to incentivize disconnecting from the internet than the promise of a night or two in the trees?
Winc wine club, $13 and up per bottle
A Silicon Valley take on the classic wine club that I’ve drunkenly fallen in love with over the five months I’ve been subscribing to their wines. Their selection is somewhat limited, but nine times out of 10 I have been blown away by the quality of their wines relative to the price. And their beautifully designed and clever labels look great on my booze shelf at home.
Quip electric toothbrush, $40 and up
Yet another category of products that is due for disruption is electric toothbrushes and replacement brush heads. Quip is applying familiar commerce models to the electric toothbrush category, allowing you to purchase a yearly subscription of brush heads coming to your house on a regular basis. Plus, the design of the toothbrush is really slick at a price that feels super reasonable.
In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs by Grace Bonney, $21
This book profiles some women I’ve heard of before and tons I haven’t — and that’s the best part. These stories aren’t just about being female in a creative industry, they’re about people who have accomplished things that everyone, regardless of their gender, can learn from.
Paul Rand “Red Dancer” poster, $1,001–$2,000
I recently dug through Paul Rand’s essay collection and it reminded me how much I admire the designer and his no-bullshit method for working in the field. This poster hanging in my living room would be the perfect daily reminder.
Smitten Kitchen’s Toasted Marshmallow milkshake, roughly $10 depending on cost of ingredients
Do you love someone so much you want to give them diabetes? Make them Smitten Kitchen’s homemade re-creation of the long-lost New York restaurant Stand 4’s famous toasted marshmallow milkshake. It is probably the world’s perfect sugar delivery system, and you’re sure to get a heartfelt thank you from your loved one when they wake up from their calorie coma.
Fuji XT-2 mirrorless digital camera, $1,600
The best of the little mirrorless cameras available these days, it’s got all the expected bells and whistles and a great new sensor, but with the classic styling Fuji has become known for. And unlike most digital cameras these days that go with unmarked controls that you need to use the screen or menu system to adjust, the XT-2 has real knobs and dials for real physical control and feedback.
