Gifts are one of my love languages.

I love giving gifts and getting gifts, from a wishlist or as a surprise, big or small. I love wrapping gifts, and having a different gift wrap color theme each year. I was the designated gift wrapper for my family growing up. My mom would put everything in piles in her room, tell which pile was for who, and let me go to town wrapping and adding bows and gift tags. This was not a chore or punishment. (for those concerned, she did wrap the things for me herself, so I wasn’t wrapping my own presents).

Naturally, with Christmas coming up, the question of “What do I want for Christmas?” has been on my mind and asked by family (my side of the family is also big on gift giving, if not as much the wrapping). This year, most of what came to mind was for the business owner or designer in me. So here is this designer’s 2017 wishlist:

1. An iPad Pro – Right now, going from drawn to digital is a bit of a time suck for me. Paper > Scan > Endless Clean Up > Final Digital Piece. I have an iPad, but it’s an iPad 1 – that’s right, the OG iPad. So none of the nice tablet drawing apps work on it. An upgrade in this area would be amazing.
2. A new desk – My current desk was a Craigslist find lo, some 10 years ago. It has weathered several moves and some hard use, and has been a good desk. But to say it’s showing its age is an understatement.
3. Lingerie and/or Paris Pro typeface sets – these are both just so gorgeous, and I haven’t had a legitimate reason to shell out for them.
4. A color laser printer – Because inkjet just doesn’t cut it for some things, and I’d like to do more print mockups and personal projects that could use it.
5. A Seven-Year Pen – with a name like that, I’m dying to put it to the test.
6. This set of Tombow dual brush pens – I would love to expand my hand lettering skills!
7. Rocketbook Wave Smart Notebook – This is so outlandish, I just want to try it out.
8. Any book/books off of this list. Aside from being a designer, I’m also a bookworm, so books are always a good gifting bet.
9. This introvert sans sweatshirt. You can never have too many comfy work-from-home outfit goodies.
10. A referral for one of my bucket list dream projects, or someone with an awesome biz who could use my branding services.

Clearly some of these are more heavy on the wish part of wishlist than others, but hey, that’s why they call it that. Regardless, I’d be beyond thrilled to find any of these wrapped under the tree. Though that may be tricky for #2. 😀

What’s on your wishlist this year? Personal things or things for your business?

You may also like 10 Ways to Impress Your Graphic Designer Wife This Christmas. 😉