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Design Better
2025 Holiday Gift Guide
00:44:41
Gifts for the makers, thinkers, and people who notice the details.
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- [00:02]
A
Eli, I think we probably record what, 50, 60 episodes a year, Something like that.
- [00:09]
B
That sounds about right. Yeah.
- [00:11]
A
We talked to some fascinating people, but I gotta tell you, this is my favorite episode every year.
- [00:18]
B
It is fun.
- [00:19]
A
Yeah, I love it because it sort of gives me an opportunity to look back at the things that I've enjoyed so much and things that I've encountered when I've been traveling around the United States and sometimes internationally. And I love to share cool things that make our lives better, more creative. And that's what we're going to do today. Share some ideas, holiday gift guide for people that you love, including yourself. In fact, oftentimes when I look at holiday gift guides, I'm ashamed to admit I'm often thinking of myself.
- [00:51]
B
Same here. I think for me, the kids gifts come pretty easily because they're vocal about what they want. Courtney's a bit harder, and we often do sort of travel stuff together, experiences. But yeah, I do like the holiday gift perusal. It's pretty fun.
- [01:04]
A
Well, we've got a bunch of ideas to share, so I'll let you jump in. We're gonna start with more affordable gifts and then ramp up to things that are a little bit more expensive. If you've got maybe a special thing happening this year, a special birthday, or you just wanna go all out for someone, we've got some expensive options too.
- [01:26]
B
Yeah. Okay. Let's start on the cheaper side. And books are typically pretty affordable. And we had on Jordan Mechner this year, who is the creator of Karateka and Prince of Persia and just wrote this graphic novel memoir called Replay. And it's really fantastic. It's about his own journey, but also about his grandfather and his father and his extended family who escaped from Nazi Germany and made their way to the US And. And he illustrated it himself. He didn't really consider himself an illustrator, but over the years, he just doodled and practiced and practiced. And the illustrations are actually really quite lovely in this. Check out that episode if you haven't heard it with Jordan and this book. Replay is a really great gift.
- [02:12]
A
Yeah, it's a great gift. I mean, he's the sort of guy who can do pretty much anything he chooses to do. Once he locks onto a goal, he just dives in. He's made video games, he's worked with people on movies, and it's a really cool book, really interesting story. Okay, well, I'm thinking a lot about cooking, and when I try to pull together a meal quickly and I want it to taste great, I find that the most Important thing is to have a cabinet of quality spices. And so Burlap and barrel have done something that's similar to what we've seen with coffee and chocolate, which is they go out, they do sort of this fair trade. Create relationships with farmers around the world who have the best of the best spices. Things like mint, cinnamon. They're royal cinnamon. I make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning every year. Their cinnamon is incredible. Is by far the best. They have a vanilla kit that's a jar that comes with these vanilla beans inside. You just add your favorite rum or liquor to turn that into vanilla. I have a favorite rum called kraken. I pour that in there, let that steep, and I use that in again. My cinnamon rolls and all kinds of different things. I love their smoked paprika. They also have these lovely gift sets that make a wonderful gift for yourself and for others. And it's, you know, a reasonable price. I go to them for my staples of the things that I'm pulling out for cooking. I can't say enough good stuff about Burlap and Barrel. You can spend 6, $7 for a spice of some sort on up to a little bit more, depending on what you're getting.
- [03:58]
B
That's great. Yeah. Finally went through the task of organizing our spices and even made sort of stadium seating so that you can see them each. And it makes a huge difference if you have things alphabetized versus trying to dig around for everything.
- [04:11]
A
Yes. We are that type of household where we have our spices alphabetized in drawers so you can see it all.
- [04:18]
B
And.
- [04:18]
A
And there are labels on all the drawers that say what's inside. So that's my wife. She's very good at keeping us organized. I appreciate that.
- [04:26]
B
Well, I don't have any real cooking things this year, but let's see, on the affordable side, there's another book here which one of our other guests, Jason Chatfield, recommended, and it's all about comics and sort of the language of comics. It's called the Lexicon of Comicana. If you've ever wondered what to call these little doodles and things like that, this comic Mort Walker came up with, essentially, Dictionary of all these terms, which evidently a lot of the comic artists use. So the light bulb over the head is the eminata. The cursing are groxley, the tongue, and concentration is protolisation.
- [05:05]
A
This is really cool. While you're at it, if you're getting this book, if this is interesting, don't sleep on Scott McCloud's book, Understanding Comics. It's been around for A long time at this point and is a staple in a lot of curricula in colleges around the world. But, man, I still love understanding comics. It's a great, great book. All right, well, I'm headed back to the kitchen for another gift idea. I love Rancho Gordo. Rancho Gordo produces heirloom beans, chilies, sauces, spices. I also get spices from them. Love their chili powder, love their Mexican oregano. They're wonderful. They had a sale earlier this year, and I got the email that said, you know, we've got a sale going on, and so I ordered our favorite chili sauce from them. It's called La Paloma Mild Sauce for hot people. It is wonderful. Like, I would put it on cereal. It just. It tastes great. I like to put it on eggs in the morning for breakfast. You can put it on, you know, if you made a pot of butter beans, tacos, chicken, it's just so wonderful. And it's not overwhelmingly spicy. So the sale went on. I ordered six of these, and I was gonna surprise my wife, and I got the notification that the delivery had just been dropped off at the door, went to the front door, and there's two boxes. There's my box of six bottles, and then there's another box. And I thought, this is strange. Turns out my wife got the same email and also bought six bottles of the same sauce. We both love much, and we got a kick out of the fact that we bought each other the same gift.
- [06:45]
B
That's awesome. I've known about this brand for a while because I'd spent a little bit of time in the food and wine world doing food photography. And one of the chefs, who was actually a Michelin star, the first Michelin star for a vegetarian restaurant called Ubuntu, used the Rancho Gordo beans, a couple of his dishes, and I love him. We can get them here locally sometimes. And I'll use the cassoulet beans. Make a cassoulet. Yeah, they're really good.
- [07:10]
A
Yeah, it's wonderful. If you have an instapot, I think that's a key, that you can just whip up those heirloom beans real quick.
- [07:17]
B
Yep. I definitely use the instapot for the castle too.
- [07:19]
A
I do not yet have an instapot, but my justification for, you know, storing another appliance in the kitchen is totally Rancho Gordo. How can I make this faster?
- [07:29]
B
Yes. Okay. Let's go on to more sort of stocking stuff for affordable gifts. So if you've watched the show or have seen us in person, you probably know I'M a big fan of hats, and we just recently had on Aaron Draplin, who is a designer up in Portland and also makes great hats.
- [07:49]
A
He's, of course, best known as the co founder of Field Notes. And I think all of us have had a field note notebook in our pocket at one point. I love the colors of all the stuff that he designs.
- [08:00]
B
Yeah. Super colorful. If you go to his site, it's funny. There's stories behind everything. He's just a funny, interesting guy. And these hats are, you know, they're not super cheap, but they're like in the order of like, 35 bucks, affordable for stocking stuffer. And he's got a lot of other merch on the site. So, yeah, be on the lookout for the episode with him, which is. It's a really good one. In fact, it was Brian, our producer's favorite episode or one of the favorite episodes that we've done so far.
- [08:29]
A
There's so many things that Aaron makes, and they're just wonderful. His patches, the stickers are super cool. All of it has a feeling of familiar Americana, like a history of things you might find in a hardware store. There's that amazing NASA space shuttle sticker and poster that he's done, and there's always a sense of humor in everything he does. It's just fun. It's really fun to have in your world.
- [09:01]
B
Yeah, that's great stuff.
- [09:03]
A
We visited Aaron recently and got a kick out of chatting with him. But we also traveled to just north of the Bay Area to the Eames Institute recently, and we met with Lisa Demetrios. That video of our interview and the tour of the Eames archive is forthcoming by the time this is out. Maybe that video's there too. So check Design Better on YouTube. I love the playing cards, the Eames playing cards. They're so beautiful. You can get these from the Eames Institute or from moma, from the Museum of Modern Art, their website. I like to play cards at the holiday. That's something that we always did when I was growing up. We play spades or hearts or cribbage, all kinds of stuff. It's always fun to, after you have a big meal together, to sit down and play a game. And these cards are so cool. They're geometric, they're simple. A lot of fancy designer cards are not very like. You have to kind of decipher them, and it affects my game, you know, And I'm competitive. I want to win. I like that. These are just, like, super clear and easy to use. Very Charles and Ray Eames. They're very purpose driven and think about function. So these are inexpensive at 18 bucks. Great stocking stuffer, great gift. Great for a designer in your life, maybe a colleague who you want to give something special to that they can live with and enjoy and think about you every time they use them.
- [10:31]
B
Yeah, they have a lot of cool stuff in that store, and I wanted to grab a bunch of things. I did get this cool little. You can see it in the background there, this little acrylic cube, essentially, or Lucite cube, that has these different sort of colors on it and just a fun object. So people have probably heard me talk about the design of a new office I did here. So I've been trying to decorate it and make it designerly. And I got the Hang It All. The Eames Hang it all that's also available at the gift shop. But I got mine through Design Within Reach, which my wife and I sometimes call Design out of Reach, because it's quite.
- [11:06]
A
I think you're not the only one. Most people do.
- [11:09]
B
Yeah.
- [11:10]
A
So the Hang it all you can find in a few places, but we also have that in our kitchen. So when you walk in from the garage, it's where the kids hang up their backpacks and their coats and stuff. It's like a daily use object. So beautiful. I never thought of this, but when we went to the Eames Institute, there was a hallway with probably 10 or 12 of those in a row, and they fit together perfectly. So they're modular, so you can have as much hanging space, as many hooks as you want. That is super cool.
- [11:45]
B
Very cool. What color did you get for yours at home?
- [11:47]
A
So we have white frame, the wire frame. That's powder coated with walnut knobs.
- [11:54]
B
Yeah. Nice.
- [11:54]
A
And then, of course, you've got the colorful one. You can get the multicolor. All the Eames colors are in the paint there.
- [12:01]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [12:02]
A
All right. Still in the affordable category. I've been to Japan a couple times, and whenever I go there, I always swing by the stationery stores, because I think many people know the stationery in Japan is superior. It's superior to every place in the world. They have the best note cards and pencils and pens and stamps and erasers and pencil cases. I love it all. And I found there the Oto Mechanical Pencil. Wood sharp. It's kind of a weird name, but it's O H T o Mechanical Pencil. Basically, what this is is the feel of a wooden pencil and the function of a mechanical pencil. So it's always sharp. And it looks cool as well. So this is like 1112 bucks. Just looks like a wooden pencil. I love a number two pencil, but the problem is they go dull right away. This is all the joy of a number two pencil with a mechanical pencil, like fine writing tip. And you've got an eraser. It's not complicated. It's pretty simple. And yet it's so brilliant. They just pull those things together. I have a bunch of these. You can buy them on Amazon. I only had to go to the other side of the world to figure that out. But I always have a few of these hanging around. They're my favorite pencil. I've tried a lot of mechanical pencils and they often don't have a good eraser. Or it's like got a cap over it, which is so cumbersome. Which is why I think these are better. Like, that's just that classic number two pencil eraser.
- [13:38]
B
So when we were up in Portland and we interviewed Aaron Draplin, we actually did it at the James Brand's studio. And you and I have been fans of James Brand products for a while. They became a sponsor this year. And they just make such lovely, beautiful stuff. And they just started making a wallet, which they call the low. And it's really great, super minimal. I had to trim down the number of cards I carry, which is fine because most of them are on Apple pay anyway, so just the necessities. It's got a nice little silicon band, so you can put extra card and cash in there. And when we talked to Ryan, he said his inspiration was cigarette cases from the 1950s, which he used to carry his wallet as a design. And it's sort of like a modern version of that. Yeah, I got a lot of compliments on it. So it's a cool purchase. About a little bit over 100 bucks for that.
- [14:27]
A
We got to see all the different prototypes too, all the different iterations they went through. It's a pretty simple thing and yet so functional. It just does, like the essential stuff. And I don't think I can ever go back to the fat billfold folding thing anymore because, you know, in the back pocket I just got hip and back problems.
- [14:48]
B
Yeah, you got the Georgia Costanza.
- [14:51]
A
Yeah, Slim wallet's the way to go.
- [14:53]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [14:54]
A
Next up is teenage engineering. If you are a synth pop, electronic music nerd, chances are you've probably heard of teenage engineering. They design very cool objects. Synthesizers, recording audio equipment. They're just beautiful objects. Inspired by 80s electronics and Dieter rams and Braun from like the 60s it's a very specific, very clean aesthetic. Even their website, like, their website is just cool. A while back, I did a little project in Sweden, and I was gifted some of their pocket operators. These are $60. They're kind of like a little. Almost like a game, but it's a synthesizer that you can plug into your audio gear and make little loops and sounds and stuff. They're super fun to play with. They come in a cool package, different colors. There are these fun LCD screens with graphics on them, and you can kind of tweak the sound. And my youngest son used to come into my office and play with my pocket operators all the time. I've got three of these things. They're just cool. Like, if you've got a young person in your life, this is a great stocking stuffer. Something they would never ask for, but it will encourage their creative exploration. Anyone who's excited about music, these things are just very cool. They're very fun. And you can get these cool silicone covers for them, too. And you can chain them together, which is really cool.
- [16:32]
B
We did a little panel episode up at Sequoia Capital with James Buckhouse, Kevin Bethune, and Irene, who are experts in residence right now. And James had this fun little medieval soundboard, which was also teenage engineering. Right. It was like you could make a beat into these vocals, sort of Gregorian chants. They just make such cool, weird stuff. It's really great.
- [16:53]
A
Yeah, I love that medieval one. It was kind of just left on, and we were sitting there hanging out and talking. It was very calming. Yeah, I loved it. And while we're on the topic of teenage engineering, I'm just going to throw out one other thing. This is a significant jump in price. The pocket operators were just 59 bucks. This is 1500 bucks. It's the TP7 field recorder. So this is a beautiful device. Reminds me a lot of Dita ramps. It's a field recorder so you can record interviews, notes, sound in the field. And it's got a circle that's spinning as if it's recording tape, which of course, it's not. It's recording digitally. There's an app for your phone that it'll connect to, and you can organize and translate. And if you want to pause the recording, you can put your finger on that spinning disc to prevent it from recording further. This is something I don't need, but I sure wish I did need this, because it's amazing.
- [17:52]
B
Yeah, maybe we need it for, you know, doing our travel interviews as our backup. There you go.
- [17:56]
A
I Think so.
- [17:57]
B
I'm kind of bouncing back in price level a little bit. But one of the other things I needed when I was building my office because first of all, I had to make sure that the foundation was level. So I got this laser level, Bosch laser level, and it was really handy for that. But it's continued to be handy because I'm making like a little art wall over here with all these frames.
- [18:19]
A
Oh, wonderful.
- [18:20]
B
I can just turn on the laser level and make sure everything's nice level and tight with each other. Just makes hanging stuff super easy, too, so.
- [18:30]
A
Oh, that's great.
- [18:31]
B
You can use it for construction or home art projects, too. And it's only like 50 bucks ish on Amazon.
- [18:39]
A
It's amazing that those things have come down in price. Like they used to be kind of an expensive piece of kit.
- [18:44]
B
Yeah, for sure.
- [18:45]
A
They're not that bad now.
- [18:46]
B
No, no. Yeah.
- [18:47]
A
So we have some nerds in our audience who spend their days in Photoshop and Illustrator and very specific tools. Premiere, perhaps. Did you know that they make keyboards? There's a company called icpal. Icpal, they make keyboards specifically with all the quick keys for your favorite piece of software. So if you are trying to speed up your workflow, you want to go faster and just be more intuitive in your workflow. This is pretty great. 120 bucks. You know, they're not for every piece of software. I don't know that there's a Figma version, but that would be very cool if there was.
- [19:29]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [19:30]
A
So we've got Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. I don't even know what that is.
- [19:39]
B
I think that's color grading. So if you're doing color grading on a movie or video, but yeah, that's cool. I could use that for Final Cut, potentially.
- [19:48]
A
Yeah. Pretty cool. Pretty great little tool that can make things faster.
- [19:53]
B
So we've had some really great things and objects, but let's talk about experiences and something I did this year that I never really thought of doing, but it was sort of bought for a gift for our family is there's a place called Ifly, and they have them all around the US and it's essentially indoor skydiving. So you can think of it like a giant fan, essentially, that's powerful enough to lift you off the ground. So our whole family did it. You go through a whole training, and then there's somebody in there kind of helping you along. And it is actually really fun. You can kind of uplevel and get to the Point where you're doing it on your own, you're doing all sorts of acrobatics. But even just the initial experience is pretty cool. It's almost like you're skydiving, but it's super safe, obviously, and something you can take your kids to do. And we really enjoyed it. It was quite a lot of fun.
- [20:46]
A
This is great. My kids would love this. This is my kind of skydiving. Yeah, it's the skydiving without the dying.
- [20:52]
B
Yes. Yeah, that's. That's a key part.
- [20:57]
A
All right, well, I've got a couple options here that are less about a thing and just stores, brands that I think people should go check out. I recently learned about a company called Imogene and Willie. They're based out of Austin, Texas, and they also have a store in Nashville. I might have that backwards. Nashville, Austin. I think they might have some shops elsewhere. They make really cool stuff. This is an American brand steeped in the history of American clothing. And they have great T shirts, graphic T shirts that are interesting. They often are a little irreverent and funny. If you like a graphic tee, the.
- [21:44]
B
John Prine baby shirt, that's pretty great.
- [21:46]
A
Yeah, that's great. You know, I am a person who, like, I don't want just any T shirt. I want a T shirt that feels right. These feel like that broken in vintage style T shirt that just feels soft and good. The collars are nice. They don't wrinkle up or roll. They're really great. But their history is fascinating. It's a husband and wife team, not named Imogene and Willie, but husband and wife team. And the wife whose name escapes me, her family has been in the denim industry for decades and they know a lot about denim. And the denim production plant that they were running out of Tennessee, it went under at one point. I think it was the mid-90s. They were producing jeans for lots and lots of companies, all the big brands. And it got to a point where things were shipped overseas and they had to quit. They tried some other jobs, tried to do different things, didn't work out, and they decided to go back to denim. And they make really nice jeans, really nice denim. So if you're someone who likes Americana, this is male and female too. So you can kind of find the thing that works for you. American clothing, American made, great story, very thoughtfully produced. Also, they are specific about, I think all the cotton they use comes within a 40 mile radius of where the cloth is spun and woven. So very cool. Their T shirts are a Little more expensive because of that. They're 60 bucks. Personally, I'm not a person who needs 50 T shirts. I'd rather have five really good T shirts. And that's what I'm talking about here. These are fantastic. Imogene and Willie, just check out everything they're doing. They make really cool stuff. I'm definitely going to be spending more money there.
- [23:43]
B
All right, so I'm going back to the experience side of things, and this particular person will be familiar to listeners. Andrew Evans, he's a magician and he runs something called the Magic Patio. It is an amazing experience in San Francisco where has a little magic speakeasy and it's totally hidden. It's on Mission street, and you wouldn't know it was there. In fact, in the front of it is kind of a candy shop, but behind he's built a little stage and seating, and he runs a just wonderful, wonderful magic show. In fact, we're taking my wife Courtney and our family and some friends up there for her birthday party at the end of December, which would be a lot of fun.
- [24:28]
A
I love Andrew. I love magic. I love everything that he does. This is not on my list, but I know a lot of our listeners are in New York. If you're in New York, there is a very cool place where they know Andrew personally. It's called Tannen's Magic Shop. It's the magic shop that's featured in the book the Adventures of Cavalier and Clay Michael Chabon, which is a cool book. You can find Tannen's Magic Shop in Google Maps, but when you're looking for it on the street, no signs. It's hidden. You have to go find it. In fact, I had to hunt around to find it. But in terms of really awesome gifts, amazing magic tricks, history, like Harry Houdini's bathtub from his apartment, and a great library of magic books. The gift of magic is a great, great gift. So I'm going to build on Imogene and Willie. I think last year I made a recommendation. Billy Reed, who is a designer clothing maker based out of Florence, Alabama, that is just across the river from Muscle Shoals, where lots of great records were recorded. And they did a partnership with Gibson Gibson, the guitar maker, and they made some really cool clothing. There's a women's cardigan that is super soft, snuggly. And the motifs in these different articles of clothing, they have jackets, shirts, hats, tunics, all kinds of things. The motif comes from the design of Gibson guitar. So if you have a music lover in your Life. Maybe someone who plays music, they will notice some of these motifs, like the famous hummingbird, the Gibson hummingbird guitar. Lots of great songs have been written on Gibson hummingbirds. That shows up all over in the design of this clothing. Again, really great materials, beautifully made, handcrafted articles of clothing that last a lifetime. And they've got a cool story. So Billy Reed and Gibson, you can find these on Gibson's website. And by the way, this is how I found Imogene and Willie. They also did a partnership with. With Gibson and they have some articles of clothing that they've made as well.
- [26:45]
B
Super cool, even. Just the graphic tee is really nice. The muscle sh and. Yeah, yeah. All right, so this is another office one. So in the effort to make my office a little cozier and welcoming, I wanted to get an area rug. And there's a site called All Modern, which I guess is probably a subsidy of one of these bigger companies. But they seem to have nice stuff and some Google Ad I'm sure pointed me to it, but I ended up getting this Tripoli rug. It's really nice plush. It's got a kind of nice modern colors to it. It just adds a lot of warmth and kind of vibrance to the room. So really enjoying that. I am making guests, the office, take their shoes off if they decide to go over to the carpet because it's got these white, kind of cream white sections on it. I don't want to get all dirty, but. But the kids know to take their shoes off now, so that's nice.
- [27:36]
A
It's hard to find a good rug. I find a lot of rugs are just ugly. Yeah, yeah. Former guest on Design Better, Jonathan Adler, he has a bunch of rugs and he has done a partnership with Ruggable a while back. And those are great rugs as well. So if you're looking for a good rug, these are low pile. You can literally pick them up and throw them in the washing machine to wash them.
- [27:58]
B
Yeah, we have one of those in the main house. It's great for kids and pets and all that. Yeah.
- [28:03]
A
Okay. I have an UN gift because I think some of us maybe we don't need anything. It's hard to come up with a gift list because you just don't really need anything. I really like the idea of repairing something for someone you love. Could be like a pair of shoes, pair of jeans, old jeans that maybe got a hole in them and you can't wear them because, you know, the crotch blew out or knee blew out or something like that. A Sweater that might have been attacked by some moths, or even an old family heirloom object. A piece of furniture or something that doesn't look so great. That is a really high impact gift. To find something that is special, that has a story, that has visible history built into it. Find somebody locally who can repair that and give that as a gift. It's a surprise. They won't be expecting it, and it's something they'll never forget.
- [29:01]
B
Yeah, I love that idea because I think all too often we're sort of goaded into buying new stuff for the folks that we love. But many of us have these great things in our lives or even just. We were just talking about outdoor furniture and how it tends to just break way too soon, even if it's expensive stuff. And so I just made some repairs and made some little armrests for our somewhat dilapidated armrests that exist on our outdoor furniture. But, you know, that'll give us another couple years out of it, hopefully, and won't end up in the landfill so soon. There's also some really beautiful techniques for doing repairs. Are you familiar with Kintsugi? The Kintsugi technique? Yeah, Japanese technique where you could take a broken vessel and essentially repair it with gold inlay and. And it looks really beautiful. That would be a fun thing to do if you have cracked or broken earthenware that you need to repair.
- [29:52]
A
Yeah. This is actually a goal of mine that I set for myself at the beginning of 2025 was repair the things in my closet that I'm not wearing because they're starting to fall apart. I had a few things like a Patagonia fleece where the cuff started to fray. Some jeans that were old that I loved, that were really broken in, but they needed new life shoes that were falling apart. And I just found somebody. I found local people who are making a good living doing something good in the world, and they do great work. I found that once I got those things back, I love them even more than I did before. You know, that they last longer. So that's kind of a nice thing.
- [30:34]
B
Yeah, I love that idea. So here's something that's actually tied to where I teach at Stanford, and one of our students is developing a new product. A lot of people this time of year start to get what's called seasonal onset depression or seasonal affective disorder, because getting less light during the day. My mom gets it most years, and so she has a special light. And he's developed a really amazing lighting system. And it looks like it's Very bright, beautifully designed for counteracting the symptoms that people get every year with the lower sunshine in winter. And so he's, I'm sure, put a lot of thought and research into it. I personally haven't used it yet. He's offered to come give me a demo at some point, but it's still sort of in pre sale mode. And we'll put a link up in the episode so you can sign up if you're interested in it. And it's not inexpensive, but if this is something that you suffer from in winter, could really help you out. So something to keep in mind for you or a loved one.
- [31:32]
A
Yeah. Beautiful design too. Yeah, they're really cool. Yeah. If you're suffering from this disorder, man, that is an invaluable purchase. Life changing, quite literally. I have another store, not a particular thing. I love old things. I love things with history. And we went this spring to New Mexico, first time to Taos, New Mexico. And I found a store there called Kimo Sabe. And this guy, you know how you find some people who just have like great taste and depth of knowledge in a particular area or genre? This is that person. It's a small shop in Taos called Kimo Sabe. And you can order stuff online. He has so many amazing artifacts from various Native American tribes. Beautiful kachina dolls, beautiful textiles, pottery, jewelry, paintings. I love this stuff. The texture and the color and the geometry is unbelievable. I wanted everything there, but I ended up buying just one thing. It's a very simple bracelet from like the 1920s or 1940s. It's just like a really cool, like, got some weight to it. Feels great. Again, I like the history, the simple pattern on here. And it's handmade, so it feels very unique. Not a manufactured object. I'm fascinated with transgenerational objects. There, you know, aren't too many things that we own that we would pass on to the next generation. Kemo Sabe is full of things. Art, jewelry, special artifacts that you would pass on to the next generation. And it's really interesting. If you happen to be in New Mexico ever and near Taos, it's definitely worth checking out, if not just visiting the website. There's a lot of cool stuff for sale.
- [33:28]
B
It's great. Yeah, a lot of this stuff really resonates with me because I mentioned before, but I was born on Navajo reservation in Arizona, where my folks were working as doctors. And we still have friends that we stay in touch with that are from the tribe there. And the rugs and the Jewelry are just beautiful. Growing up, my parents got to be friends with a woman who was a nurse there, and her father was actually a medicine man for the tribe in that area. And he came to my bar mitzvah, of all things. And he was just wearing this beautiful turquoise jewelry and I think, bracelet similar to the one you had. And they gave me a really nice silver belt buckle that was crafted by a Navajo artisan. So that's special. Yeah. So that's definitely one of those things that I'll hand down to Dash, probably time comes.
- [34:17]
A
Yeah.
- [34:18]
B
So speaking of Dash, he's only got one thing that he's interested in really, this year for Christmas, which is the Nintendo Switch 2, which is a little pricey, but looks pretty darn cool. I don't know if you have you played around with one yet, Aaron?
- [34:32]
A
Just a tiny little bit, like in the store, but they're cool. The Switch is such a thoughtfully designed thing.
- [34:40]
B
Yeah. Like the one he has now. I don't quite know why he needs to upgrade yet, because I think he only got the other one, like a couple years ago. But I guess kids these days want to have the latest and greatest when it comes to video games so they can play with their friends. Nintendo is such an interesting company because they've been around for a long time. You know, they started as a playing cards company, and they've just been able to evolve and stay kind of part of the cultural zeitgeist for over 100 years now, I imagine. And their design's always very thoughtful and, yeah, just a lot of fun. And I'm sure you and I, you know, kind of grew up with the original Nintendo consoles, and they're still a hit with the kids.
- [35:20]
A
The one thing I love about Nintendo's approach to game design is that it's always social, it's always communal. You know, with the Switch, how the controllers come off and you can pass a controller to a friend and you can play together. You know, they did that with the Wii. I remember when the Wii came out, it was just like everybody, families, entire families were playing together, and it was a blast. It was such a great time. I think the Switch, in the grand scheme of, like, game consoles, you could go down the rabbit hole on the Switch is a great one. It's a very cool thing.
- [35:55]
B
Yeah. Speaking of repairing things, back in Covid era, we resurrected our Nintendo Wii because the drive had died. So I had to figure out a way to, like, hack into it, load stuff up on a little USB card, and we were able to, you know, bring the kids. They had a blast. Like playing those old games on the Wii. Super fun.
- [36:15]
A
All right, I'm switching gears. I'm taking a note from your book here and suggesting an experience. It's called Vacation with an Artist. I love giving the gift of learning. And I hope my wife is not listening to this because I am going to give her the gift of learning. She's interested in sewing and learning to make things with textiles. I'm going to give her a four day vacation in Gies Bend, Alabama to learn about quilt making. Gies Bend. If you're not familiar, Google this. African American women in Gies Bend have been making beautiful quilts there for a long time, hundreds of years. There's a rich tradition there. And these quilts, like, even if you're not into quilts, the geometry, the design is so cool. It's so interesting. I love the design of these things. So I think this is a cool gift to give. There are lots of different types of artists all over the world in different places. So you can send somebody you love to a place that's within driving distance for a couple days to learn a skill, pursue a passion, develop a new passion. If they maybe are trying to think like, how could I be more creative and do something new? It's a great way to do it. And the cool thing about this is you're also supporting artists and craftspeople for people in our world. That definitely resonates.
- [37:43]
B
Yeah, these are beautiful. I remember, I think it was at the MoMA here in San Francisco or maybe the De Young. They had an exhibit on these quilts. I was struck by them seeing them in person. And they're almost modern but rustic at the same time. There's sort of an interesting tension there. And yeah, really beautiful work.
- [37:59]
A
Yeah, they're geometric, but not always straight lines. They're not like tight grids. Color. It's also about like being scrappy, using whatever literal, literally scraps. Scraps of cloth that you, you have access to to make something really beautiful and special. And again, something that'll last for generations.
- [38:20]
B
Well, so this is related to that experience. And if you want to do some travel, but bring a watercolor kit with you. This cool little watercolor kit was featured on the Wire cutter. So it's just a nice little kit, very compact. And bring it with you on a trip. We'll link to the article. The author did a little 30 days sort of challenge. So I like that idea of challenging yourself to just try something new for 30 days and see where you can Take it. But this looks like a fun thing to bring with you on the experiences and adventures that you have.
- [38:54]
A
Yeah, I love this. I have a background in painting and drawing, and when I travel, my brain is always like, what am I going to draw or make in my sketchbook? Having a lovely little kit like this, that's cool. It's fun. Also, if you're traveling with kids and you've got a long journey, pulling something out like that on a flight where you could make something creative together, that's pretty cool.
- [39:18]
B
I like that.
- [39:19]
A
All right. Well, Eli, we did a survey earlier this year to learn more about our audience. And we learned that 19% of our listeners play an instrument of some sort. And I recently saw a TED Ed video about how playing instruments changes your brain. And it lights up lots of different parts of your brain, especially your corpus callosum, and it literally changes the size. So your corpus callosum is at the bottom of your brain and it is a bridge between the two hemispheres. So when you're reading music, there's this logic, there's also creativity, there's also motor skills. All these things come together. I just bought myself a new instrument. It is a Nash guitar. And there's nothing like having a cool instrument, like an instrument that lights you up, that makes you feel excited to play, feels good, sounds good, connects you with other people who are musicians as well, or aspiring musicians. You know, just the other night I connected with my 12 year old who he's learning flute, but he's definitely not a guitarist, not a guitar player. And he just picked up one of my guitars and started playing and I started playing with him. Then we went and sat down at the piano and started playing something together. And we have this connection. There's something really special about human connection through music. The synchronicity of creativity. So Nash guitars, if you're a musician or an aspiring musician, if you've got goals for yourself in the coming year, playing an instrument is great. Finding a great instrument is so key. Nash has been around for a little while, I think 25 years or so. I believe they're based out of Nashville and they create guitars like Stratocasters, Telecasters that are built to spec from the early days when Fender was making these electric guitars. So what I bought myself was a T52. It's a Telecaster that is built to the 1952 specific. So the pickguard is Bakelite. It feels like an old guitar and it's great. It's got like all the relicking and the feel of an old guitar without the price tag of an old guitar. Because if you try to go buy one of those old guitars, you're talking like $70,000 for like a 1950s guitar. That's a lot. That's a lot. You can get one of these used on reverb or other places for, you know, 1700 bucks. Not cheap, but definitely a lot more attainable. So if you're already into guitars, chances are you probably have some opinions. But just putting this out there, the idea of finding an instrument that lights you up, either to take you further in that musical journey or get you started with your musical journey, definitely a worthwhile endeavor. It's good for your brain, good for your longevity, good for creativity and social connection.
- [42:14]
B
Yeah, I love this. For folks that are listening, pop over to the episode page because there's a cool picture of the T52. It looks like a vintage one that's been well used, I imagine. Just get better with age, the wearing and yeah, looks really cool.
- [42:27]
A
Yeah. How the lacquer comes off on the back of the neck and on the fretboard and that makes it kind of less grabby, more smooth to play. Mine looks like that. That's called a black pickguard telly, but it's not as weathered as that. And we a little inside baseball here, but we had to pause a second while we were recording this episode. Eli had something to do, and I ran to my luthier to drop mine off to get a quick service.
- [42:56]
B
Yeah, right now I'm not playing an instrument, but I used to play the cello. And I keep thinking I gotta get back into it because it is such a great activity. Just it's very meditative, like you said, communal. And all the good things.
- [43:10]
A
Anyone who has a hard time, like your brain is always planning for the future or you're thinking about the past. When you play music, you can't do that. All you can think about is right now. I find that invaluable.
- [43:23]
B
Well, that's probably a good place to wrap things up. We got some really good gifts this year. Hopefully inspired folks out there. And yeah, I guess I gotta go get out and get some shopping done for the kids. And Courtney.
- [43:34]
A
Same. Well, happy holidays, everybody. We hope you have a safe and fun holiday. And we should also mention another thing to consider if you are purchasing for a team like you want to Give something special. DesignBetter A subscription is a great gift for your entire team. And you can learn more about that@designbetterpodcast.com Subscribe.
- [44:01]
This episode was produced by Eli Woolery and me, Aaron Walter, with engineering and production support from Brian Paik of Pacific Audio. If you found this episode useful, we hope that you'll leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to finer shows. Or simply drop a link to the show in your team's Slack channel designbetterpodcast.com It'll really help others discover the show. Until next time.
- [44:30]
B
SA.