The Internet has made it okay (even cool) to be a nerd, and web designers should be thanked for making it happen. Don’t get your web designer friends the latest Dreamweaver guide or a new mouse; there are much better gifts out there that speak directly to the nerdy sensibilities of most web designers.

Start with your friends who work in-house. It’s no fun wearing a tie every day, but perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if they had an 8-bit tie from ThinkGeek. The design is jagged and totally GIF-like, and best of all, it’s a polyester clip-on. (Also suitable for the video gaming geeks on your list.)

Nothing says corporate web designer like the ThinkGeek 8-bit tie.

If your web designer friends are of a more stylish variety, perhaps a swankier gift is in order. Laptop bags have gotten a whole heck of a lot better looking over the past few years, and quirky fabric choices let designers make a personal statement. ACME MADE has a wide range of sizes and styles, from urban messengers to subtle, pretty prints, and Janine King Designs (via Etsy) offers tons of distinctive fabric choices.

I love my Janine King laptop case.

For your friend that just can’t stop taking his or her computer apart, consider some recycled circuit board accessories, like clipboards and keychains from Debby Arem Designs (via Etsy).

I normally wouldn’t recommend giving a gift that will just be passed on again, but blank CD-Rs from 5inch are perfect for designers that deliver assets to clients on CD, or just for your favorite mix CD enthusiast. The blank discs are screen printed with tons of great designs and can be purchased with fun trigger cases or in custom sampler packs.

Fancy CD-Rs dress up client asset deliveries and music mixes.

And if you’re feeling really generous, pick up a LightScribe external CD burner. It burns the data on one side and a custom label design on the other.

Finally, how about a nod to the early days of the web: when designers studied and used the web safe palette religiously? Those days are over, but retro is in. And, some designers do still use the web safe palette as a starting point for creating color schemes. The folks at VisiBone offer lots of color references, including a web safe palette mouse pad.

VisiBone’s hexadecimal mouse pad: retro kitsch or handy reference?

So have a little fun with your gift giving this year. Save the spare Blackberry stylus and XHTML books for another day.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.