Gifts for Creators 2023: The Techie

Here's a list of great gifts for the techie creative in your life. These are tools that are helpful for programmers, graphic designers, digital photography and more. 

Please also support your loved & local artists by purchasing their art as gifts for your other loved ones! Spread the creativity around.

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SAMSUNG T7 External Solid State Drive - 1TB ~$90 No one really talks about backing up. It's not the sexiest of topics. But it's also probably one of the best self-care things you can do. Have a digital back-up and a physical back-up. These hard drives are super sturdy, lots of different storage options (all the way up to 4 TB) and while solid state is more expensive, the speed is worth it to make working off them a breeze.

Zendure Portable Laptop Charger ~$230 So, yes, you can totally find cheaper and smaller portable chargers. But this one packs enough power to charge your laptop and other devices at the same time. It's also TSA compliant for domestic flights. It also has a little screen that shows you the wattage being pulled from each device.

Peak Design Tech Pouch ~$80 This tech pouch is an organization wizard. The perfect pockets and internal structure make it so easy to just open and work directly out of. Excellent for any techie on the go or that works in multiple places (home, studio & office).

One by Wacom Medium Graphics Drawing Tablet ~$78 Wacom is the name in drawing tablets. Easy to set up and use, it can make drawing digitally much more natural and really gets out of the way of creativity.

Phone Camera Lens 3-in-1 Kit ~$19 These lenses amp up your phone's camera, which can be helpful to quickly digitize anything. This universal set includes a 120° Super Wide Angle, a 198° fisheye Lens and a 20x Macro Lens.

Universal Tablet Stand ~$30 This is a surprisingly low-tech item to include in this list but it is so useful. This little stand holds up my iPad Pro, and can adjust to lots of different angles for all your needs. It's simple and perfect.

Apple Pencil ~$90 Apple really did good with this pencil. It's perfect feel in the hand, great weight and makes drawing on the iPad Pro feel so natural. We constantly tell people this is actually the best product Apple has ever made - it's so underrated in it's capabilities to transform computing.

KODAK Ultra Mini Pocket Pico Projector ~$220 A small portable projector is always useful. As a tool in photographs or as a quick editing tool to see upsized images, this finds lots of uses.

Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs ~$27 This book is a treasure trove of Internet Art. Different mediums from different times are thought-proving and inspiring for any creative in the digital arts.

Creativity, Inc ~$21 The co-founder and president of Pixar writes about creative leadership - Ed Catmull along with Amy Wallace dive into the crafting of Pixar's culture, then provide some deep insight into how one of the world’s largest media companies wrangles and understands the nebulousness of delivering memorable works of art through the lens of nurturing creativity and technology.

Thanks for checking out our 2023 gift recommendations for the techie creative! Now you'll be sure to have the best presents at your gift exchange. Find some of our other curated gift lists here:
      The Artist
      The Maker
      The Photographer
      Under $25