gift guide Archives | Ciera Design Studio

Top 4 Black Friday Deals To Help Grow Your Business

November 23, 2018 by Ciera Holzenthal

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely time with family and friends!

I’m so thankful to have the ability to be creative on a daily basis and to be able to make a living doing what I love. I am super grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way in 2018 and I’m really excited for what lies ahead in 2019!

I’m also grateful for YOU GUYS! I enjoy sharing my passions and day-to-day with you and I love connecting with new people all over the world!

I have to be honest, I typically hate shopping, so I’m not always a fan of the after Thanksgiving shopping craze BUT I love a good deal, especially when it’s something that can save me money in my business.

I’ve come across some awesome deals for us running our own design biz or other small business that I wanted to share with y’all! Affiliate links used but these are all products that I personally use and LOVE.

1. DUBSADO – Client Management System

Dudsado is hands down, my favorite tool for running my biz. You set up a workflow once and then your systems are on autopilot. It captures leads on your website (your contact form, for example), can automatically send those leads a proposal, then a contact, then an invoice (in whichever order you prefer.) You can set payment reminders, there’s a client portal, bookkeeping, and just so much goodness. They also JUST introduced a native scheduler where you can have your clients set up appointments with you.

SALE DETAILS:
They will be raising their rates from $30 to $35 (monthly) and from $300 to $350 (annually). If you sign up now, you’re locked into these rates! PLUS get 20% off through the links in this post.

SALE DATES:
Prices go up on Tuesday, November 27th – the 20% off doesn’t expire.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DUBSADO SALE

2. TAILWIND – Pinterest Scheduler

Tailwind is a game-changer for Pinterest. The majority of the traffic to my website comes from Pinterest (and I bet yours does too). With Tailwind, I can set aside a few hours and schedule out content for the entire month. They also recently launched SmartLoop (their most-requested feature ever!), which helps you automatically recirculate your best Pins at the best time for engagement.

SALE DETAILS:
$15 credit towards Tailwind Plus

CLICK HERE FOR THE TAILWIND SALE

3. THE CONTRACT SHOP – Contract Templates

Gotta be honest, I had NO idea what I was doing with my client contracts until I grabbed my template from The Contract Shop!

Within 10 minutes, I had a contract template and was customizing it to suit my business. It was super easy to add in my own details and I feel waaaay more confident knowing my contract has been vetted by someone who actually knows what they’re talking about! I use their graphic design templates and their terms and conditions template.

SALE DETAILS:
40% off ALL products

SALE DATES:
Thursday November 22nd 10pm ET to Monday November 26th

CLICK HERE FOR THE CONTRACT SHOP SALE

4. CREATIVE LIVE – Online Education

Creative Live is an awesome platform for continuing education or just learning new fun things! They are an online education platform that broadcasts live classes for free. If you miss the live broadcast or want to watch a class again, you can also purchase all of the archives on their site. Enjoy up to 60% off all classes. It’s a great time to kickstart your goals and end the year strong by sharpening your skills in topics like crafting, design, audio, photography, video, music, and business.

SALE DETAILS: 60% off all classes at CreativeLive

SALE DATES: November 22-25

CLICK HERE FOR THE CREATIVE LIVE SALE

There are lots of other deals out there, but I just wanted to keep this short and sweet with the tools I think you’ll really find useful.

The Best Graphic Design Books

November 30, 2015 by Ciera Holzenthal

There are so many great blogs out there full of amazing design resources, tutorials for hand-lettering and freelance business advice, but sometimes don’t you just want an old-fashioned book? I still love flipping through and bookmarking pages for inspiration. I’ve included some of my favorite graphic design related books here, all of these graphic design books would also make amazing gifts for the creative types in your life!

A selection of the best graphic design books including hand-lettering, fonts and inspiration. These make great gifts for your creative friends this holiday season - click through to read more about them!

The Best Graphic Design Books:

Type Rules: The Designer’s Guide to Professional Typography
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces
Work for Money, Design for Love: Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Starting and Running a Successful Design Business
Creative Lettering and Beyond: Inspiring Tips, Techniques, and Ideas for Hand Lettering
How to be a Graphic Designer, without Losing Your Soul: Straight-talking Advice on How to Establish Your Design Career
Freelance Design in Practice: Explaining exactly what it takes to create a full-time freelance business
Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business
Little Black Font Book: the go-to resource for designers and typographers looking for the perfect font
In Progress: See Inside Jessica Hische’s Sketchbook and Process
Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors & Students

*Affiliate links used.

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Hostess

December 3, 2014 by Ciera Holzenthal

I find that right after Thanksgiving the holiday party invites start rolling in, so I decided to tackle the host/hostess gift guide first this year. If you’ve ever hosted a dinner or party of any kind, you know how much work it takes. Here are a few good gift ideas to let the host know that you appreciate their efforts!

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Hostess:

Favorite Gifts for the Hostess

Is there anything you’d like to receive as a party host/hostess? See all of my gift guides here!

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Home Office Employee

December 6, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

I know a lot of people who have recently made the switch from a full time office job, to working from home or from their own studio. Here are some great items that I love having in my home office and wouldn’t think twice about getting them for a fellow ‘home office employee’ as a gift!

Home Office Employee Gift Guide

1 iPhone Handset Talking on your cell phone gets old fast so a handset is very useful especially when I am trying to multitask.

2 Lap Desk Since I don’t always work from my desk having a lap desk is great, my laptop gets ridiculously hot.

3 Bronzing Lotion Working from home sometimes I don’t get enough sun. This lotion is amazing for a quick, natural glow.

4 Stickygrams I love using my Instagram photos to liven up my home office.

5 Neu Year Wall Calendar In order to keep organized, I need to see the upcoming weeks at a glance. I discovered this huge wall calendar last year and already got my 2014 one ready to hang!

6 Flannel Slippers Let’s face it, most days I work in my pajamas and slippers!

7 Office Chair Everyone can use a nice comfy office chair.

8 Beverage Warmer This is seriously my favorite thing in my office, nice warm coffee or tea all day long!

9 Monogram Mug It’s nice to add a little personal touch to my desk

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Art Lover

November 25, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

Better Homes and Gardens published their holiday gift guides last week, and guess what? I got to curate one! There are over 25 different guides curated by other bloggers and BHG editors, I was asked to curate one for Artists and Art Collectors! If you are buying for someone who creates art, supplies like charcoal, sketchbooks, and paints are always a great gift. If you are looking for someone who is more of a collector, art books, prints, decorative home items, or art-inspired clothing are great options. Here are some of my favorite items from the curated guide and you can head over to BHG.com to see all of my picks! I’ll be taking a blog break for the rest of the week since I’m heading to Maine tomorrow for Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a great week!

art lover gift round up

Riveting Reflections Dress / There Had Never Been Another Poster Print / Acrylic Paint Set / DIY Pinhole Cameras / Blueprint Paperweight / Coffee / Pigma Micron Graphic Pens / Wreck this journal / Slim Kira Vase • See all of my gift guides here!

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Wine Lover

November 18, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

I’m trying to be good this year and get my holiday shopping done ahead of time. I recently came across UncommonGoods and y’all, they have some amazing options for gifts! I feel like everyone on my list is so difficult to shop for but this site has so many unique items that it’s going to make it really easy on me! They have thousands one-of-a-kind products ranging from home and garden products to jewelry and accessories, office items, children’s toys and more. I totally love all the fun wine related things they have so I decided to put together this gift guide! My mom will probably get a few things from this list!

wine pairing towel set / Corkcicle 3-in-1 Wine Chiller / Double Wine Supermarket Bag / 33 Bottles Of Wine / Tipsy Wine Glasses / Wine Purse / Bellamy Carafe / Wine Soaps / Toasted Book • See all of my gift guides here

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Coffee Lover

December 10, 2012 by Ciera Holzenthal

Today is going to wrap up this year’s gift guides, I hope they have helped with your shopping! Today’s guide is for the coffee lover in your life!

I am a huge coffee lover, I find myself brewing it and pouring cups all throughout the day and sometimes into the evenings. If you have a coffee lover in your life, they can be pretty easy to shop for. They’ll always need more beans, so that is a good place to start! While this coffee lover may already have a favorite way to brew their coffee, maybe you can upgrade their system with a new French press, espresso machine, cold brew system, Chemex or a single cup coffee maker. If you don’t feel comfortable making that decision, you can always pick up accessories like mugs, scoops, mills or cream and sugar servers that will allow them to enjoy their coffee drinking experience even more. Then of course you need some snacks with that coffee so why not grab some beignet mix, peppermint bark, biscotti or popcorn. You can also help the coffee lover in your life increase their knowledge on the subject. There are tons of coffee themed books and even cookbooks!

1 Espresso Machine / 2 Gloves (invite) / 3 Beignet Mix /4 Sugar Bowl & Spoon / 5 GoCoffeeGo Gift Card / 6 Camano Coffee Mill / 7 Coffee Cup Cozy / 8 French Press / 9 Infinity Scarf / 10 The Independent Coffee Book

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Photographer

December 6, 2012 by Ciera Holzenthal

Today’s gift guide is for the photographer in your life! I have my eye on a few of these things for myself. Finding gift ideas for the photographer friend can be really fun and doesn’t have to be as expensive as you might be thinking! While buying a professional camera will tend to be too expensive for a gift, secondary or toy cameras like a pin hole, Holga, Poloroid, or Golden Half would make a great gift.

Then there are tons of smaller items that can help photographers out or just allow them to have some fun. Items like filters, straps, thermoses, tripods, cleaning kits, memory cards, flash diffusers and notepads are all great additions to any camera bag. With smartphone cameras getting better and better you can even go the route of getting photo accessories like lenses, cases and touchscreen gloves for phones!

If you are pretty sure they have all the gear they could ever use, you can help the photographer in your life increase their knowledge on the subject. There are tons of ebooks, online courses and educational photography books out there! Hope you enjoy these gift ideas for the photographer!

1 Conde Nast Traveler Photographs / 2 Kate Spade Polka Dot Thermos / 3 Epiphanie Bags Belle Camera Bag / 4 Color Lens and Flash Filters / 5 Touchscreen Gloves / 6 GoPro Camera / 7 Wood Camera iPhone Case / 8 Bright Camera Strap / 9 Field Notes

My Favorite Gift Ideas for the Designer

December 5, 2012 by Ciera Holzenthal

To get into the holiday spirit I decided to create some gift guides for y’all. If you have any designer friends (hint, hint) here are some of my favorite gift ideas for them!

1 My Beautiful Life Drawing Journal / 2 To Go Coffee Mug / 3 Pantone Color Guides / 4 Aqua Lacquer Stapler / 5 Jessica Hische Daily Dropcap iPhone Case / 6 Wacom Intuos Tablet / 7 Bright Ballpoints / 8 Big Flip Calendar Clock / 9 Graphic Design Exercise Book