18 Creative Gift Ideas from a Graphic Designer

I absolutely love designing thoughtful gifts for the people in my life. That moment when you hit someone right in the feels can’t be beat. And by having design and video skills paired with the power of Adobe Creative programs, the opportunity for creating sentimental gifts feels infinite. You can magically transform memories, moments, or someone’s favorite things into special, nostalgic items.

After years of creating these types of gifts, I finally wanted share some of my finished projects to give other designers ideas for creating sentimental gifts of their own. Below, you’ll find my favorite gifts I’ve made. I hope it inspires you!

1. “Yelp” Review Book

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Instead of rating restaurants, why not rate a friend? I wanted to create a book of all the different ways people see someone, but I didn’t want it to be too cheesy, which is where the idea of packaging these as heartfelt, funny “Yelp” reviews came into play. I printed this 7x7in book with Blurb.

2. Personalized Logo

One of my friends is obsessed with the Dodgers. So when she got married, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to design her married name (Reagan) in the style of the Dodgers logo. It isn’t a perfect replica—the script lettering used in the original Dodgers logo was designed specifically for their team, so my personalized design couldn’t match exactly unless I spent the time hand-illustrating the letters. The character weight and the ‘s’ are the biggest indicators that this is a different typeface. But hey, it still works! Once I had the logo designed, I printed it on a magnetic baseball bottle opener from Buffalo Bottle Craft.

3. 62 Years of Memories

When my mom turned 62, I enlisted her friends and family to each contribute one favorite memory they have had with her, and I compiled them all into a book of 62 memories to honor her 62nd birthday. You can match this with whatever age the recipient is.

4. Pet Pokemon Card

Design a Pokemon card with a pet instead of a Pokemon, and you can be as creative as you want with the details on the card to fit the pet’s unique personality. After finishing my design, I used the website MakePlayingCards to print these, using a Gold finish on the front to get that shiny look.

5. Pet Trading Card

These pet trading cards are a similar idea to the pet Pokemon cards, just in the style of a baseball card instead! You can honestly design any style of “trading card” you’d like (i.e. football, Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc.) depending on your recipient’s interests.

6. Family Recipe Book

If you have handwritten family recipes, consider scanning them, cleaning them up in Photoshop, and turning them into a printed book!

7. Looping Video Frame

If you have a moment recorded that you wish you could turn into a moving portrait (Harry Potter style), you’re in luck! You’ll first want to edit the video to make it a perfect loop, and then with Infinite Objects, you can upload that video and get a frame created.

8. Book of Letters

My best friend and I wrote letters back and forth to each other almost every day from junior high through high school, so I scanned each and every letter and printed them into a 400 page book in chronological order. If you have handwritten notes or letters, consider scanning them too and turning them into a keepsake for you both to read through.

9. “Ugliest Photos” Book

Do you and your friends have a bunch of horribly ugly photos from over the years? Well I definitely do, and if you do too, consider collecting them into a photo album book to look back on and laugh.

10. Custom Sign

This was a sign in my physical therapist’s office (referencing an inside joke that he was the toughest physical therapist there), and I couldn’t resist bringing this to life for him. I printed this design onto a metal sign with ArtAttackPrintworks.

11. Colorized Photos

If your family or friends have old black and white photos from their past, consider colorizing them in Photoshop! I ended up doing 4-5 photos altogether and getting them printed on canvases at Walgreens.

12. Crime Wall

If you have a friend that is obsessed with true crime shows, why not design a crime board around a pretend crime they committed? This gift was a team effort between me and my talented friend and designer, Kristen. We designed a crime report, a “Wanted” poster, and lots of photoshopped photos and news articles based on an inside joke of our friend killing the singer Jewel. (Sorry Jewel! We don’t actually want any harm to come to you!)

13. Funny Music Video

If you have a friend who can record music like I do (shoutout to Kristen!), you can make a parody song for someone, and use your video experience to shoot a music video for that song. I filmed and edited a music video to match Kristen’s song and burned it onto a DVD for our friend. I will unfortunately not be linking to the full music video because it is way too embarrassing and for our friend’s eyes only, but here are a couple clips for your enjoyment:

Commission Other Artists

Sometimes I’ll end up brainstorming gift ideas that reach beyond my creative skill level (like drawing and illustration), and that’s when I’ll hire other talented folks to help bring my vision to life. I love finding artists on Instagram or through subreddits.

Being a designer is incredibly useful in these situations because I have experience writing up a proper project brief with art direction when the project starts so they have a clear picture of my vision, and then throughout the creative process, I’m able to provide specific feedback rather than just statements like “make it pop” (as designers, we’ve all heard that one before…). The results are things I would have never achieved on my own, and always turn out so much better than I expected.

14. Memory in a Specific Artistic Style

One of my friends hosts the most epic sleepovers—we’re talking endless snacks, movies, and props in her living room. She also loves Miyazaki films (like “My Neighbor Totoro”). So I hired Arman, a talented illustrator, to recreate the magic of her space into the style of Miyazaki. Once it was done, I ordered a canvas print to hang!

15. Needle-Felted Animal Frame

My best friend’s childhood dog that she grew up with passed away, and I wanted to find a way to keep his memory alive for her, so I hired Wool Art Toys to create this beautiful felt replica of Buddie.

16. Tattoo Illustration

If you know someone that wants a specific tattoo idea, why not hire an artist to illustrate the concept for them? This concept came from a love of both Dragon Ball Z’s Vegeta and Adventure Time’s BMO, and was illustrated by Kenjay Reyes.

17. Watercolor Portrait

My friend’s dad sadly passed away, and so I commissioned Daniels Castillo to draw a digital watercolor painting. Once it was done, I got it printed on a canvas print.

18. Custom Team Logo

A few friends and I are in a skeeball league (yes, it’s a thing… in Austin, TX at least) and our team name is “The Skee Amigos”, so I hired an artist, Rajie Anik, to create a logo for us. Once the logo was complete, I got it printed on shirts ordered from Spreadshirt, as well as on iron-on patches from MakeMyPatchNow. I also got our individual names printed through CoffeeJuiceStudio to add to our jackets too.