I started Christmas shopping very early in 2010. I have been browsing shops, online stores and catalogs since August. I have bookmarked, scheduled and bought a wide variety of quirky and awesome products for some very lucky people. I also own quite a few things that are on the list I have compiled, so you know that they come highly recommended. I have deliberately left out design books, applications and high end gadgets like the iPad and Mac Airbook because everyone already knows about them and honestly it would blow your budget if you are buying them for a friend or colleague. I have rounded up 30 amazing designer christmas gifts to give the geek in your life, gifts that are budget friendly and very unique. I hope this list helps your own wishlist and also gives you ideas to buy for friends and family. After all, we all have a little bit of geek in us!

1. App Magnets

These quirky little heavy duty magnets are oh so perfect for your whiteboard. Colorful and shaped like the little App buttons on your iPhone, these 18 magnets are as useful as they are fun.These would be perfect for those Secret Santa gifts. I ordered mine last week!

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2. Floppy Disk Sticky Notes

Geeks have a thing about retro and floppy disks are to the information age  what cassette tapes are to music. The geek in your life will love these sweet, whimsical sticky floppy disk sticky notes.

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3. Pocket Jams Cassette Tape

Speaking of cassette tapes, these stylish little zipper puches for iPhones, money and other knickknacks, make a great gift.

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4. Photoshop Magnet Kit

13 magnets for lovers of the image editing software, these photoshop magnets would look so cool on the fridge or whiteboard.

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5. Giant Lego Storage Boxes

Lego is a lifelong fanaticism for most of us. I believe its shape and form make it one of the most timeless and classic creation in the history of mankind. Now you can have it sitting in your house almost like a giant work of art.

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6. Oye Modern Origami Jewellery

This is absolutely beautiful. Origami jewellery? Who would’ve thought! They have an amazing collection. Perfect for the wife or girlfriend this Christmas.

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7. Bin Bin

John Brauer designed this gorgeous waste basket in 2005. It looks like it is made of crumpled paper but is in fact very sturdy plastic. Swedish designers have a very artsy and futuristic take on things and this particular design calls out to the designer in me.

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8. Book Rest Lamp

What a brilliant idea! You read by the soft frosted light and then switch it off and create an instant "house" for your book. A piece of art, lamp and bookmark all rolled in one!

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9. AC Adapter World Of Alice

Wish all cables were works of art like this one! Then we wouldn’t try so hard to hide them.

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10. Vintage Typewriter Set of 10 Thank You Cards

I have recently taken up writing thank you cards and notes instead of a phone call or email. There is a lot of joy and old worldly charm in letting someone know that you took that extra effort to think of them and thank them for whatever they might’ve done for you. Although not a "gift" item, this one would be for you to thank people for the wonderful gifts they will gift you this Christmas.

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11. 365 Days Notebook

Know someone who would like to indulge in a little 365 Project? This nifty notebook with boldly numbered pages from 1 to 365 would make a perfect gift. I’ve got one and can’t wait to start my 2nd year of Project 365.

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12. Pac-man Moleskine

Limited edition Pac-man Moleskines to celebrate Moleskine’s 30th anniversary. Satisfy the geek in your designer and get sketchy.

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13. Enough Social Interaction Doormat

I saw this doormat and wondered if Calvin Lee (@mayhemstudios) had it outside his door. Maybe he does, how else would he be so omnipresent on Twitter? He is also the kind of guy who would appreciate the blatant humor in this doormat, a nice guy and a rockstar. If you know anyone like Calvin, well you know what to get them!

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14. Rubik’s Cube Alarm Clock

Back in the day, I was really really addicted to the Rubik’s cube. Wasn’t great at it, but definitely addicted. I find this alarm clock a very quirky gift idea and an excellent conversation starter if you leave it lying on the coffee table.

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15. Sewing Kit Wall Sticker

Create quirky wall art in an instant by arranging this sewing seam stickers along windows, doors or everyday objects at your home or office.

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16. MT Japanese Masking Tape

I have two rolls of this very clever product. It is a masking tape that comes in solid colors as well as patterns. Use it as a regular adhesive tape or as a masking tape because it comes off easily and doesn’t leave a mark. Write on it, doodle on it, use it as a memo.  Very versatile!

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17. Scrabble Tile Cushions

I have an old and very comfy couch next to my desk. At any given time there are 3 or 4 cushions taking up all the available space on the two seater. I like to change the cushion covers and these awesome eco recycled felt covers that look like scrabble tiles might be next on my list of things to buy. I am a huge, huge scrabble fan!

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18. F1 & F2 Lamp Shade

Very stylish and modern, these lamp shades bring the right amount of nerdiness into a living area.

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19. Geekology Tee from Threadless

Cliches, but often true; this is the essence of a geek! And the geek will appreciate the humor.

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20. "Google Before You Tweet is the new Think Before You Speak" Print

A beautiful letterpress A4 print by Joe Newton, very chic, very vintage and yet touches a modern chord.

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21. Mini Robo Vacuum

No more excuses for an untidy desk. Fun gift idea!

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22. Mad Men : The Illustrated World

You will love this if you are a fan of the show. If you are not, it has some amazing retro illustration inspiration that will have you reaching for your sketchbooks.
 

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23. Fold & Play Recycled Speakers

These cardboard speakers fold down and fold up into a cube speaker, perfect for the iPhone.
 

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24. 8-Bit Oven Mitt

Mario is baking in my kitchen! My cookies are in good hands!
 

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25. Jessica Hische Poster

2 color letterpress print of the first alphabet of Jessica’s Daily Drop Cap Series. Beautiful work!

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26. Oversized Zinc Letters

A must have! Pick one or several for that wow factor!
 

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27. Cover Story Postcards

100 amazing titles from Penguin’s collection of paperbacks becomes a collector’s dream.
 

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28. Space Invaders Cutting Board

A space invader fanatic who loves to cook can’t be very hard to find! This makes a beautiful gift for the seriously nerdy foodie in your life.

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29. Remote Control Solar System Mobile

This would be so cool to have and such a great gift to give. Almost magical, this gorgeous mobile could double up as a night lamp and become a feature in your study, studio or office.

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30. Panton Replica Chair

In 1967 Vernon Panton designed the first ever chair to be molded out of a single piece of plastic. It became quite the sensation with its futuristic wave design. It is a gorgeous work of art and so comfortable, you will not believe it. I am a  big fan and own two white Panton replicas which are a permanent fixture in my office. Own this beautiful piece of furniture or gift it. It looks so perfectly delicious, it won’t even need a red bow.

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A while ago I did an article and roundup of Free Logo Fonts and today I am following up on that with a big list of 45 brilliant and gorgeous fonts for all you logo designers and web designers out there. I have tried out a couple of these in my logo projects and I have a special affinity for Lobster by Pablo Impallari and League Gothic. There is a good mix for modern, minimalistic, retro, vintage and traditional logos and layouts. Experimenting and altering them to suit your designs will create any look and feel you are after. The fonts below are all free, some require signing up to get to the download which is a very small price to pay for these little typographic gems. As always, enjoy responsibly!

1 Bullpen Heavy Italic

2 Calluna Regular

3 Circula Medium

4 Darjeeling Ornaments

5 Deftone Stylus

6 Expressway Regular

7 Florin Sans Demo

8 Neuropol X Regular

9 Pirulen Regular

10 Planer

11 Reklame Script

12 St Ryde

13 Deibi V1

14 Code

15 Zag Regular

16 Dekar

17 Lot

18 Piron

19 Typeface Adec

20 Zebra

21 Gabo

22 Quadranta

23 Juice

24 Jura

25 Conqueror

26 League Gothic

27 Nobile

28 Junction

29 Franchise

30 Hattori Hanzo

31 Alte Haas Grotesk

32 Balham

33 Neuton

34 US 101

35 Euro Caps

36 St Marie

37 Goudy Bookletter

38 Ayita Pro

39 Molengo

40 Veggieburger

41 Lobster

42 Adelle

43 Alido

44 Velocette

45 Bebas Neue

46 Itsadzoke

47 Amperzand

48 John Hancock

Vector Illustrator Freebies

1. Gorgeous Ornate Vector Patterns

2. Grungy Fleur De Lis Seamless Vector Pattern By  Patternhead

3. Magic Patterns By Pehaa

4. The Geek In Me By Pica-Ae

5. Complex Paisley Vector Patterns

6. Twisted Floral Vector Patterns By Patternhead

7. Ornamental Seamless Pattern

8. Vintage Velvet pattern From Patternhead

9. Stylized Clouds Pixel Patterns By Patternhead

10. Elegant Swirls Vector Patterns

11. Retro Pattern By Designious

12. Free Range Duck Pattern

13. Forget Me Nots Pattern

14. Halftone Madness Illustrator Patterns

15. Valentine’s Day vector Patterns By Colorburned

16. Seamless Destroyed Vectors By Colorburned

17. Alice In Wonderland Pattern [Needs Credit]

18. High Quality Subtle Grunge Vectors – Think Design Blog

Vector Illustrator Pattern Resources

I have found these nifty little pattern tutorials very useful when creating my own vector patterns and swatches.

1. Create A Seamless Folk Pattern Tutorial – Pehaa

2. Create A Damask Pattern Using Madpattern Illustrator Template – Vectortuts+

3. Create A Trendy Seamless Type Pattern – Vectips

4. One Minute To Make Seamless Plaid Patterns In Illustrator

Premium Vector Pattern Resources

These websites sell some amazing vector patterns at dirt cheap prices. Like being in a candy store!

Patternshop

Floralcy

Patterrific

I hope you have enjoyed this little roundup and that you find these resources useful for your design needs. If you know of any websites that provide free or premium high quality vector patterns, please let us know by leaving us a link in the comments below.

When designing a website or any other printed media a whole array of elements are vital to the overall look and feel of the project, if any of these aspects are incorrect or poorly thought out the project can suffer. Colour is one of these important parts of design. When choosing colour your initial reaction is "do these colours work together?” after that you have to consider things like accessibility. There are a number of online tools that can assist you with putting together a great palette. I have rounded up 15 such tools that can help you with colour selection, suitability and accessibility for your web and graphic design projects.

1. Check My Colours

This site checks the colours used on your site and discovers how accessible it is to users with any colour deficits.

2. Pictaculous

Pictaculous allows you to upload an image and the site fetches a colour palette from the colours used in the uploaded file.

3. Daily Color Scheme

Each day this site provides its readers with a fresh colour scheme each day which can be saved and downloaded to your own machine in multiple files formats.

4. 4096 Color Wheel

You can use the wheel to discover web safe colours for your project, you can also download your palette once compete.

5. I Like Your Colors

I Like Your Colors grabs the colours used by the site that referred you or you can enter a URL in the form on page to see the colours for a particular URL.

6. Kuler

This well know Abode tool has a huge collection of user generated pallets which you can download, you can also sign up and add your own.

7. Colour Lovers

Colour Lovers is a community driven haven for colour lovers everywhere, there are over 300k users sharing over 1 million palettes.

8. 100 Random Colors

Does what it says on the tin, offers you 100 random colours, each page reload will offer you 100 new colours.

9. Color Scheme Designer

This offers the ability to select your own colours from a wheel and save them into your own palette.

10. Colorotate

Browse and create your own palettes using a slick 3D "wheel", it has numerous options such as blend, hue and tint.

11. ColorSpire

ColorSpire uses a colour wheel to offer a scheme for colour co-ordinating your webpage layout.

12. ColorJack

Using the huge sphere you can make your own palette which can be exporting to Illustrator and Photoshop for example.

13. ColorBlender

This is an online tool for matching and blending your palettes, it can work from one colour and offer suitable matches.

14. ColorHunter

ColorHunter will discover colours used in online images or uploaded images which then are placed into your favourites for later use.

15. 0to255

This easy to use tool will discover variations of a certain colour, which can be handy when using for gradients and borders.
 

1. GLOBAL WARMING – ICONSHOCK

Iconshock is known for constantly being on its toes and coming up with icons that touch base with current happenings and global events in addition to your run of the mill stock icons. They have created a fantastic icon reminding us gently to do our bit in conserving our resources. The pack is called Global Warming and it has some gorgeous and detailed icons championing a good cause. Go To Source

2. SEO ICONS – ICON KITCHEN

Icon Kitchen is talented illustrator and designer Andrea Austoni’s newest playground. The Seo Icon Pack is a beautiful pack and well thought of by Andrea. There aren’t many icon sets out there that skim the surface of the abstract SEO world. Although the expanded, huge pack is for sale, Andrea offers 16 icons for free so you can test out and decide for yourself whether you want to grab a great bargain at $20. Go To Source

3. SHINE – ICON EDEN

31 beautifully detailed semi glossy icons that would make your website project complete. Icon Eden generously shares this extremely useful set and offers the icons up ina variety of different formats including the EPS vector format for working wonders with the icons. Go To Source

4. BRIEFCASE – 1381 DESIGNS

1381 Designs on deviantart has managed to create an absolutely life-like icon of a leather briefcase. I don’t believe I have seen an actual leather briefcase that looks so real and detailed. The artist has spent a lot of time on this one icon but I think their time was totally well spent. Go To Source

5. LETTERPRESSED ICONS – GABRIELA 2400

Letterpress fans rejoice! Grabriela 2400 from deviantart has designed a beautiful letterpressed icon set with 42 useful icons that I could envision using in website projects and general artwork. Go To Source

6. MOBILE ICON SET – WEB ICON SET

Detailed, glossy icons free for personal and commercial use, Web Icon Set comes out with a winner in the form of their mobile application icons. Go To Source

7. APPLE MUG ICONS – OMERCETIN

I love these detailed little mugs with what looks like delicious tea swirling inside and a hint of a teabag with the famous Apple logo. These are mostly social icons with a very versatile "clear" mug that is waiting to be stamped with your personality. Go To Source

8. ICON PACK – SARGSYAN

Modestly titled Icon Pack, Sargsyan from deviantart delivers 4 compact and useful icons in the form of a great detailed map, a kick-ass "search" icon, an envelope and a pen. Go To Source

9. SABRE SNOW BLACK AND SILVER – MINIMAMENTE

A total of a whopping 102 icons in this pack, 51 black and 51 silver, the Sabre Snow icon pack is for serious design lovers. Now you can totally geek out over folder icons embossed with your favorite development symbols and ribbons emroidered with words like "asp", "png", "php", "jpeg". Go To Source

10. COLORFUL STICKERS – DRY ICONS

Part 6 in their highly popular and extremely colorful series of sticker icons, Dry Icons packs a punch with this set of icons that could be used anywhere and everywhere. Go To Source

11. PRETTY OFFICE – CUSTOM ICON DESIGN

These icons are a great and are free for non-commercial use. If you need to use them commercially, there is a small fee. Go To Source

12. ORIGAMI COLORED PENCIL – DOUBLE J DESIGN

Scribbly, sketchy icons with multiple color variants to match any website color and scheme. What’s not to like! Go To Source

13. NO NAME ICON SET – BORISLAV DAKOV

These are simple and classic. 4 no fuss icons for all your projects. Go To Source

14. COQUETTE – DRY ICONS

These are really nice! 50 gorgeous icons in true "Dry" style. They are free to test drive in your personal projects and designs. Fees apply for commercial usgae and more details can be found on their informative page. Go To Source

15. PAYMENT METHOD – ICONSHOCK

Unique and chunky icons from Iconshock wil be extremely handy on shopping cart applications and websites. I especially love the paypal card. It was about time someone designed a paypal card. Go To Source

16. FLIRANEO – ARMANY

This gorgeous icon set sounds very designer chic and it is. Armany has no clue what Fliraneo means but has named the set nevertheless. It works in my opinion because the set is flirty and has some serious sparkle. Go To Source

17. 9 SIMPLE ICONS – RA SUPERNAL ART

These are simply named and stylishly simple and functional. I love the empty cardboard box which I foresee would be so useful for adding bits and bobs to in a design. Go To Source

18. DESIGN CARTONS – LBOI

I love these! Of course I am biased, because I made them. But seriously, they are so cool and handy especially on a "landing page" for a new website or app or a future portfolio. Go To Source

19. WEB CARTOONS – SHLYAPNIKOVA

These are fun and cheerful cartoons full of color and quirks. A set of 40 icons in png format. A tad small in size but it doesn’t matter because they work very well in small sizes. Go To Source

20. FRIDGE MAGNETS – VISUAL PHARM

Cute sticker style icons with color and gloss. Go To Source

21. BOX ICONS – SKITTERRUSTY

Another icon set from deviantart that could be very useful. Boxes galore in png and psd formats with web development and design tools/elements peeping out. Go To Source

22. JUICY FRUIT – SALLEE DESIGN

A set of non-descript, multifunctional icons that you could use to spruce up your designs. Go To Source

23. PLASTIC BOX – TOMEQQ

More boxes! This time around though, they are plastic, glossy black and stackable. Go To Source

24. ORIGAMI ICONS – ICON DOCK

These are less origami, more sticker/label style of icons but great nevertheless. Go To Source

25. MARKER ICONS – ICON DOCK

Minimal marker stroke style icons for websites and applications by Icon Dock. Very handy, very nice! Go To Source

I hope you found at least some packs to your liking. If you use them, be sure to give credit where is credit is due – to the designers of those packs. Enjoy free stuff on the internet responsibly and please show some love if you enjoyed this post. Thanks for stopping by!