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Christmas Presents for Men – Personal gifts he will love this Christmas

Ask any woman and she will tell you men are difficult to buy for and that finding Christmas presents for men is an annual challenge. So what if you could find a unique, original and personal Christmas present for him that he will absolutely love – then you will have found the perfect gift. Enter the world of Pecage!

I hear it every day when people visit my market stall. The subject is more often than not about how difficult it is to find men’s gift ideas that are something different, unusual or unique as a present for him. Whether it be boyfriend, fiancée, husband, dad or brother, it matters not they are all a problem to buy for but what actually constitutes the best gifts for men depends on who is buying it.

christmas gifts for menRemember it is a two way street when looking for Christmas presents for men. Anyone can go and buy something from a regular shop but if your male loved one is special to you, as I hope they are if you are considering buying them a present, then it pays to put in a little more effort and it needs to reflect some of your character and knowledge as well.

As we will see below there are a number of ways to make this Christmas present uniquely from you.

To absolutely ensure you buy  Christmas presents for men that no one else will have thought of there are 5 main things you will have to consider. Now don’t get despondent this will not take too long but at the end you will have a unique idea for an unusual Christmas gift for the man in your life.

Pecage Thing #1 – What are their Interests

christmas presents for himAll men have an interest in something and most have a number of key areas of interest that we can use as the first keystone of this Christmas present search. If I were you I would start by listing up to 5 areas of interest, and remember there might be latent interests that your loved male might not spend much time on but you know deep down that it is still close to their heart.

For example, I don’t make a big thing of it but I used to play a lot of rugby, I was never a real fan of football, and out of the blue my wife came up with the idea of getting me a ticket to Twickenham for the Aviva Premiership Final. Absolutely loved it and it brought back an area of interest that I am keen to rejuvenate.

So, areas of interest that we can use to come up with Christmas present ideas for men. Obviously we need to look at sports of many kinds, perhaps driving, animals, reading, watching films, music – it could be anything. Don’t hold back as we will filter these down later on as we add more ‘Things’!

Pecage Thing #2 – Memories & Experiences

We find that this is one of the most powerful emotional drivers when trying to find the perfect gift for men. Since we have been running Gecko Designs we have become awakened to just how much impact memories and experiences have on men’s happiness across the age range. I guess we often associate the word ‘memories’ more with older people but they have had experiences, and shared experiences with loved ones in the past – so was there something they often talk about that is close to their hearts.

For example my late father in law sometimes mentioned the time he drove down to the south of France in the 1940s with a mate of his. It was a long time ago but you could tell that it was still a strong emotional memory for him despite it being suppressed in the following 60+ years.

Perhaps a very strong memory is associated with a vehicle. It could be a first car, mine was a mini that was close to my heart but also many people meet and go out in a car and relationships started in cars and the cars themselves have become a poignant element of the memory that lead to a happy marriage for example.  Perhaps your man’s children now live away and he does not see them as often as he would like. Maybe he was a hippy or mod in the 60s and rode a Vespa or drove a VW Camper van to music concerts. Anything like that is great stuff to consider when looking for Christmas presents for men.

With younger people though experiences and shared experiences are very powerful images that warrant serious inclusion in the perfect gift thought process. Today life is driven by achievement and often joint achievement whether that be having a first child, running a marathon together, the wedding day, going up in a hot air balloon or even buying their first house. These achievements are solid experiences that mean a lot to the person or people involved and are typical ideas that need to be put into the perfect gift melting pot.

But you are looking for Christmas presents for men remember so maybe there were experiences that mean a great deal that did not involve you like a classic bike ride or challenge he did with a friend, playing footy with Mike down the road, restoring an old car with mates from the car club, camping in Cornwall, waterskiing in the south of France, the list can be endless.

Pecage Thing #3 – Preferences

Perfect Gifts - PreferencesOne of the other things that helps to come up with the perfect Christmas gift for a man is understanding his preferences. For example there is no point getting him something that is wine related if he is a beer lover and remember if you live with this bloke your preferences might have to get involved too.

Chances are that you have shared preferences when it comes to your home, although this is not guaranteed, for example liking wooden frames for pictures rather than white. Or knowing that your house is more black and white than red and blue in terms of home décor. Is there a preference for homely, country colours like greens and browns or do they love bright colours, stripes, or is there a generic colour that comes through via their love of a certain football club.

This reminds me of a story here on the south coast. You might or might not be aware of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. In fact some of my bio photos are taken in the coffee shop at the top.  Well, not long after I visited the tower, which was all white by the way, it was announced that Emirates were planning a sponsorship deal with Portsmouth Football Club. Now one of the key colours of Emirates is red and the plan was to re-paint the Spinnaker Tower partially red.

Supporters of the football club went skitzo because the dominant colour of Portsmouth Football Club is blue and to make it absolutely unbearable is that red is the main colour of their arch south coast football rival Southampton. Needless to say the colour scheme was redesigned and it is now blue and white. So this is a clue on preferences.

Pecage Thing #4 – Locations

Perfect Gifts - LocationsThis is an often forgotten secret to nailing the perfect gift.  All you have discovered about memories and experiences above had to happen somewhere. My wife and I got engaged in Paris and married on the Greek island of Zante for example which would be good information for someone wanting to buy me a great gift, but the location does not have to be this abroad of course.

The bike ride they did might have just been London to Brighton for example, or your man might have been, so called, exotic though it could be that the man you are planning the Christmas present for was born in Cape Town, South Africa, or Sherborne in Dorset.  They might have had a memorable holiday with the ‘’ or ‘Lads’ in Ibiza perhaps. They might have taken a year out and traveled around Asia or Australia.

christmas presents for himTheir most important memory might have been going to and graduating from University, but which one? They might have cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, bungee jumped off a bridge in New Zealand, or run the New York Marathon.

When you think about it everything has to happen SOMEWHERE, and that ‘somewhere’ becomes very important to people and the location becomes a massive part of the visualization of any memory or experience.

Pretty much all of the custom gifts we create for people have some indication of location, mostly using maps but often words and sometimes the picture image portrays a location too, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris for example. So don’t forget this crucial location element of finding the perfect gift for someone.

Pecage Thing #5 – Unique, Individual & Original

christmas presents for menThis is where you start to put it all together to get to the Christmas presents for  men in your life.  If you want the best present for him then the main aim is to make sure that your man gift is Unique, Individual and Original.  You might be thinking how the hell can I do that?  But never fear there is a way you can create the perfect present and someone can make it for you.

What you need to do now is to bring together all the information you have assembled above, look at the options available and you could be giving a handmade, One-off or limited edition, attractive and extremely poignant gift to your man on their special day. Use #pecage to create that perfect christmas presents for men

This is where you have to become a little creative so to help you out I will give you some real examples of actual commissions our customers have asked for to enable them to give that perfect gift.

 Christmas Presents for Men – Real Examples

christmas presents for menA couple had a close family friend.  All of them were into skiing and their friend was famous within their group of skiing buddies for skiing down a mountain wrapped in a Union Jack. Christmas was looming and they were struggling to decide what to get him as a present. They saw our skier cut out and our Union Jack fabric and their perfect gift search was over.

christmas presents for himJenny’s father 70 year old father had completed the famous Dragon Devil cycle ride in Wales she was wondering what to get him for Christmas. The Dragon Devil is an enormous challenge with more than 6 massive climbs. This is an annual event and one that mad cyclists fight to get accepted to take part in. She asked us to use one of our Bicycle cut outs and use maps to signify important segments of the ride. This was the perfect Christmas gift for her Dad.

christmas presents for himJohn was visiting an old friend in France. This old friend had owned a Mark 1 Ford Capri and it had been a lasting memory for him and all their friends. John put together the two key items, Ford Capri Mk1 and France and so we created a cut out design of a Mk1 Capri and put a French Flag behind it. Delighted. Another #pecage win.

These are just some examples of how to take your hard work and come up with an idea for the perfect idea of Christmas presents for men. In a lot of cases we might be one jump ahead of you. Based on customer feedback and sales we have identified 3-4 fabric choices for each of our designs that are most popular. This does not mean that your perfect picture is not unique because the fabric placement within the picture is never the same twice.

But this does not take away your ability to make your own choices so you always have access to our wide fabric swatches and of course for that absolutely personal picture you can send us your own fabric. Clearly any map based perfect gifts are also unique to you.

So you have the idea distilled in your head, an idea of colours, locations, designs etc.  The next stage is pulling it all together and producing your perfect gift. This includes your own creativity, add some of our magic and you can create the perfect gift. Here are our Websites:

          Amazon Handmade - Gecko Designs     Esty-Pecage and Gecko Designs

  1. Select your Pecage design from one of our shops (links above) – we have a wider selection on our own website GeckoDesigns but also have Amazon Handmade and Etsy Websites
  2. Select your choice of size (if available) and select your frame preference from the dropdowns
  3. Select your choice of popular fabric – or select the ‘Custom’ option and then
  4. Select from our wider swatch of available fabrics – or
  5. Send us your own fabric
  6. Make a map choice if this is part of the design (we will be in touch directly to confirm the exact locations)
  7. For all custom choices complete ‘order notes’ at checkout and we will contact you
  8. All prices on the website include delivery
  9. Pay via Paypal, Debit or Credit Card
  10. Then it’s over to us

So go to our online shop – Gecko Designs Shop – and get started. Want to use our Amazon Handmade shop (limited products) Follow this link.

Need some more reassurance – have a look at what our delighted customers say. 

Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know how easy this is. Use our sharing options to tell everyone you know. We do run competitions and offer seasonal discounts so everyone can benefit from knowing a little more about Gecko Designs.

Thanks for reading and happy gift creating

Tim R Floyd

Gecko Designs / #pecage

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A Personalised Picture makes the Perfect Christmas Gift

Looking for the Perfect Christmas Gift for him or for her? Go beyond just adding their name to something and be really creative. Use our 5 Pecage steps to produce a personalised handmade picture that will make the perfect Christmas gift for him or for her.

What is a Personalised Perfect Christmas Gift?

perfect christmas giftMost personalised gift offerings just add a name to an existing product, for example, but if you really want to find the perfect Christmas gift idea for someone really important to you then you have to think on another level to create something that reflects deep thought and attention.

If you really want to impress you have to be more creative and think of a personalised Christmas gift idea that no-one else will have thought of. It should convey love, attention and consideration and then it will spark a strong positive emotional reaction in the lucky person receiving their perfect present. It should not be mass produced or a readily available commodity but original, individual and unique. This is why we have created Pecage just in time for Christmas to help your own creative juices do their work.

Simply, Pecage stands for Personalised Elemental Creation (…age is an arty sort of word ending!) and it offers multiple elements that can be personalised in your picture to produce the perfect Christmas gift or a gift for any other occasion such as Birthdays, Anniversaries and beyond. You might choose to just use a few elements or you could go the whole hog!

I am assuming that the person you are choosing the Christmas gift for is very close to you and that you really need to find something that sincerely shows them how you feel.  In all honesty the perfect personalised gift is one that makes both you and the recipient as happy as possible and you will not feel this emotional tie with someone you don’t love very much.

How do I become creative with my personalised Christmas gifts?

To start with; rather than think what you would like to buy you need to think about what they would like to receive. Being creative is not that difficult when you have a set of guidelines to help as we outline below. And don’t worry you don’t have to make anything, we can do all that for you, all you need to do is come up with some creative ideas, using our help, to produce that perfect personalised Christmas gift for him or her.

So forget about spending hours browsing shops this Christmas looking for that perfect gift that you know is not there. I appreciate a lot of people like shopping but nothing is more stressful and frustrating than spending hours looking and finding nothing.

We have all done it, I know I have, spent hours on end and lots of shoe leather traipsing around the shops desperately hoping something is going to jump out at me and shout ‘Perfect Christmas Present’!

It ain’t going to happen. OK you might get lucky but how long is it going to take and there is still no guarantee you will be successful and what do you do then because the special day is approaching? Do you go to another town? Go Online? Ask them what they want?!

No. What you need is a reliable plan.

Not the final idea of course but a reliable set of guidelines to help you completely nail the absolutely perfect personalised Pecage gift for him or her.

 Why 5 Secrets of finding the perfect Christmas gift?

Well, when I thought about it, there are five key things to consider when creating the idea for the perfect personalised Christmas gift. What is important though is that you need to know the recipient well, have inside knowledge or at least be able to get it, have had mutual experiences perhaps or at a stretch can ask subtle questions about what they like without alerting their suspicions.

Clearly this process will require thought, care, effort, knowledge and love.

Pecage Secret#1 – Interests

Perfect Gifts - InterestsSounds obvious I guess but most people have at least one key area of interest that is often very close to their hearts.

This interest might be an animal like their pet dog or cat.  People become very attached to their pets and if, say they have a Labrador, they love Labrador stuff.  This might be particularly appropriate for slightly older friends or relatives but with the trend in toy or small dogs nowadays, for example, people are becoming fanatical about their little pooch and this will lead to considerable interest in anything related to that specific breed.

Or maybe it’s horses for example if they like riding. What about their car or a favourite sport? They might be mad supporters of football or rugby or something else or members of a club for something specific.

They might be enthusiastic cyclists, motor bikers, caravanners or sailors for example. They might walk for pleasure, run, do marathons, triathlons, go to the gym, play tennis,

I can’t list everything of course, but hopefully you get where I am going with this. Basically you will need to get inside the options for the perfect present for your friends or family. Try and focus on a key interest, rather than a ‘sort of’ interest as this will have more impact.

Pecage Secret#2 – Memories & Experiences

Perfect Gifts - Memorable ExperiencesSince running Gecko Designs I have become awakened to just how much impact memories and experiences have on people’s happiness across the age range. For your older relative, have there been stories of cherished memories and experiences? Perhaps they have children who now live away and they don’t see them as often as they would like. Maybe they met at a concert in the 60s and stayed in a VW Camper van on their honeymoon. Anything like that is great fuel for your perfect present workshop.

With younger people though experiences and shared experiences are very powerful images that warrant serious inclusion in the perfect gift thought process. Today life is driven by achievement whether that is having a first child, running a marathon together, the wedding day, going up in a hot air balloon or even buying their first house. These achievements are solid experiences that mean a lot to the person or people involved and are typical ideas that need to be put into the perfect gift melting pot.

Pecage Secret#3 – Preferences

Perfect Gifts - PreferencesThis is where you need to have some pretty good knowledge of the person you are planning the perfect gift for. It can be pretty simple to establish though.  For example if you have visited their house you will see how their home décor is. Is it minimalist, black & white for example. Or homely, country colours like green and brown. Do they love bright colours, pastel or paisley colours and is there a colour theme you can establish?

If this person is your Mum or Dad, for example, you will know all this stuff as you will have been brought up with it but if it is for your Grandparents you might want to ask your parents for some sort of advice about their parents preferences.

Visiting someone’s home is a good way to get ideas for memories and experiences too. Look for photos or pictures that can give you some indications.

Pecage Secret#4 – Locations

Perfect Gifts - LocationsThis is an often forgotten secret pecage element to nailing the perfect gift.  All you have discovered about memories and experiences above had to happen somewhere. It could be that the person you are planning the present for was born in Cape Town, South Africa, or Sherborne in Dorset.  They might have had a memorable holiday with the ‘Girls’ or ‘Lads’ in Ibiza perhaps. They might have taken a year out and travelled around Asia or Australia.

Their most important memory might have been going to and graduating from University, but which one? They might have cycled from Lands’ End to John O’Groats, bungee jumped off a bridge in New Zealand, or run the New York Marathon.

When you think about it everything has to happen SOMEWHERE, and that ‘somewhere’ becomes very important to people and the location becomes a massive part of the visualisation of any memory or experience.

Nearly all the personalised and customised Pecage gifts we create for people have some indication of location, mostly using maps but sometimes words and often the picture image portrays a location too. So don’t forget this crucial pecage element of finding the perfect gift for someone.

Pecage Secret#5 – Unique, Individual & Original

Work with UsThis is where you start to put it all together and your Pecage creation becomes the final product but the main aim is to make sure that your gift is Unique, Individual and Original.  You might be thinking how the hell can I do that?  But never fear there is a way you can create the perfect present and someone can make it for you.

What you need to do now is to bring together all the information you have assembled above, look at the options available and you could be giving a handmade, One-off or limited edition, attractive and extremely poignant gift to your loved one or close friend for their special day.

This is where you have to become a little creative so to help you out I will give you some real examples of actual commissions our customers have asked for to enable them to give that perfect gift.

Examples of actual Personalised Pecage Gifts we have helped our customers create

Josie has five people in her family.

Her, her partner and three children. She also loves elephants and likes the colour red. This was a gift for herself and her partner to decorate their home so she knew what she wanted. At the time we only had designs for 2, 3 and 4 elephants so we created this one to signify the Family of 5 just for her. However, there are more families of five people out there and we have put this unique design on our website.

A couple had a close family friend.

All of them were into skiing and their friend was famous within their group of skiing buddies for skiing down a mountain wrapped in a Union Jack. His birthday was in a few days and they were struggling to decide what to get him as a present. They saw our skier cut out and our Union Jack fabric and their perfect gift search was over.

Honeymoon Memories

perfect christmast giftThis isn’t the actual picture we created but Ben and Amy had their honeymoon in Egypt and their most memorable experience was flying in a Hot Air Balloon over the resort of Hurghada by the Red Sea. So we took our exclusive Hot Air Balloon cut out and put a map of the area they flew over behind it. They asked us to put it in their choice of solid wood antique pine frame.  Example of shared experience, memories and location.

Jenny’s father was going to attempt the famous Dragon Devil cycle ride in Wales.

perfect christmas giftAn enormous challenge with more than 6 massive climbs. This is an annual event and one that mad cyclists fight to get accepted to take part in. She asked us to use one of our Bicycle cut outs and use maps to signify important segments of the ride. This was the perfect gift for her Dad.

John was visiting an old friend in France.

perfect christmas giftThis old friend had once owned a Mark 1 Ford Capri that had been a lasting memory for him and all their friends. John put together the two key items, Ford Capri Mk1 and France and so we created a cut out design of a Mk1 Capri and put a French Flag behind it. Delighted.

 

Missing the Children

perfect christmast giftIt was coming up to last Christmas and a lady came to our stall wondering if we could help. She was one of three children all grown up and living away. In some cases a long way away like New Zealand. She wanted a creative gift for her mother for Christmas that would mean something very special to her. We took our triple heart cut out and put maps of the current locations of each of the three siblings behind them. The old lady was delighted.

An old sailor was retiring and having a presentation at the sailing club.

perfect christmas giftHis daughter came to us, saw our single Yacht cut out and had an idea. Could we take some fabrics that she had at home, that had special meaning to her father, and make a picture for the presentation? Well we would give it a go. It took some work getting the fabrics in the right place but she was delighted and straightaway asked us to do another using the left over fabric. Gave us a tip both times. Very Nice!

perfect christmas giftThese are just some examples of how to take your hard creative work and come up with an idea for the perfect personalised gift. In a lot of cases we might be one jump ahead of you. Based on customer feedback and sales we have identified 3-4 fabric choices for each of our designs that are most popular. This does not mean that your perfect picture is not unique because the fabric placement within the picture is never the same twice.

But this does not take away your ability to make your own choices so you always have access to our wide fabric swatches and of course for that absolutely personal picture you can send us your own fabric. Clearly any map based perfect gifts are also unique to you.

So by following the 5 personalisation tips above you should now have an idea distilled in your head of colours, locations, designs etc and anything that will make it special.  We take your own creativity, add some of our magic and then we put it all together for you to produce a truly personal picture that will make the perfect gift.

This is the way to do it:

  1. Choose the cut out design from our online shop that will match your ideas – or contact us for new options
  2. Select your choice of size (if available) and select your frame preference from the dropdowns
  3. Select your choice of popular fabric – or select the ‘Custom’ option and then
  4. Select from our wider swatch of available fabrics – or
  5. Send us your own fabric
  6. Make a map choice if this is part of the design (we will be in touch directly to confirm the exact locations)
  7. For all custom choices complete ‘order notes’ at checkout and we will contact you
  8. All online prices include delivery.
  9. Pay via Paypal, Debit or Credit Card
  10. Then it’s over to us

So go to our online shop – Gecko Designs Shop – and get started. Need some more reassurance – have a look at what our delighted customers say. 

Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know how easy this is. Use our sharing options to tell everyone you know. We do run competitions and offer seasonal discounts so everyone can benefit from knowing a little more about Gecko Designs.

Thanks for reading and happy gift creating

Tim R Floyd

Gecko Designs / #pecage

Posted on

Pecage and Pecage Art

What is Pecage and Pecage Art?

Whenever customers visit my market stall they have the benefit of seeing my pictures first hand, inspecting the precision bevel cut mount designs, the quilted fabrics, quality solid wood frames and generally ‘getting it’!  See my tips below on how to use Pecage to create that perfect gift. 

The most common comments are “simple but effective”, “I’ve not seen this before”, “this is completely new and unique”. A regular question then is “What do you call it?”

Although certain techniques I use have been used before they have not been combined in the unique way I do it and to be honest I did not know how to answer the question “What do you call it?” So I racked my brains, considered all the elements involved in making my pictures and all the benefits they offer, options available, personalisation, and feedback from regular customers and I now have an answer to the question.

It is called Pecage.

Now the …age bit on the end you will recognise from words like collage and decollage,  French arty farty stuff, – but the Pec… bit nominally stands for Personalised Elemental Creation.  Hence Pecage or Pecage Art.  The hashtag is just #pecage.

So there you have it. Pecage is your personalised creation made up of elements that you can choose. As an engineer by trade I like #pecage because it is short, simple and easy to understand. Remember the most regular comment I get is “simple but effective”? Well any engineer will tell you that it takes a lot of design, development, work and effort to make something look and work simply whilst the ducks in the background are peddling furiously!

Pecage gives you a series of options. I try my best to create great matches of design, adding character with vibrant fabrics, and mounted in simple but true solid wood frames and lots of customers love the mixes I produce. However, if I don’t quite get it right for you simply invoke the #pecage philosophy and create your own mix of design, fabric, maps, personalisation and framing options.

Here are some tips and some blogs that might help you find that perfect gift:

5 Secrets to finding the perfect gift for someone special

A Personalised Picture makes the Perfect Gift

Birthday Presents for Her – Gift Ideas for her Birthday

Birthday Presents for Men – Unusual gifts he will love

Mens Gift Ideas

Presents for Men

Presents for Mum

Engagement Present Ideas

 

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Presents for Men

presents for menMy wife Elaine is always telling me that finding presents for men is always a challenge.  I never thought I was that challenging but I think women are over thinking mens gifts to be honest! Nevertheless, our 5 step guide to finding unique, personal and excellent presents for men will help you.

presents for menWe hear it every day when people visit our stall. My wife has a chat and at some point she will be discussing the worldwide difficulty in finding unique presents for men that their husband, dad, uncle, boyfriend, fiancee or brother will appreciate. Especially since many men love sport so lots of mens gifts are sport related, but sometimes this becomes somewhat boring. I mean how many items with their football team logo or name on it can you find.

Your mission is to find presents for men that are different, unusual and something that shows you put a lot of thought into it. Let’s face it you love them right? It pays to put in a little more effort so that your mens gift reflects some of your character and knowledge, and of course affection, as well.

Thankfully we have laid out some options below for you. 5 steps to creating a unique presents for the men in your life to ensure you buy that unique present that no one else will have thought of. Don’t worry this won’t take long, just follow the steps and you will create a picture gift, with our help, that he will appreciate and love forever.

Presents for Men Tip #1 – What are their Interests

Presents for Men InterestsAll men have an interest in something and most have a number of key areas of interest that we can use as the first step in the search for presents for men. If I were you I would start by listing up to 5 areas of interest, and remember there might be latent interests that your loved male might not spend much time on but you know deep down that it is still close to their heart.

For example, I don’t make a big thing of it but I used to play a lot of rugby, I was never a real fan of football, and out of the blue my wife came up with the idea of getting me a ticket to Twickenham for the Aviva Premiership Final. Absolutely loved it and it brought back an area of interest that I am keen to rejuvenate.

So, areas of interest that we can use to come up with great ideas for presents for men. Obviously we need to look at sports of many kinds, perhaps driving, animals, reading, watching films, music – it could be anything. Don’t hold back as we will filter these down later on as we add more ‘Ideas’!

Presents for Men Tip #2 – Memories & Experiences

We find that this is onPresents for Men Tip experiencese of the most powerful emotional drivers when trying to find the perfect mens gifts. Since we have been running Gecko Designs we have become awakened to just how much impact memories and experiences have on people’s happiness across the age range.

For example my late father in law sometimes mentioned the time he drove down to the south of France in the 1940s with a mate of his. It was a long time ago but you could tell that it was still a strong emotional memory for him despite it being suppressed in the following 60+ years.

Perhaps a very strong memory is associated with a vehicle. It could be a first car, mine was a mini that was close to my heart but also many people meet and go out in a car and relationships started in cars and the cars themselves have become a poignant element of the memory that lead to a happy marriage for example.  Perhaps your man’s children now live away and he does not see them as often as he would like. Maybe he was a hippy or mod in the 60s and rode a Vespa or drove a VW Camper van to music concerts. Anything like that is great stuff to consider when looking for presents for men.

With younger people though experiences and shared experiences are very powerful images that warrant serious inclusion in mens gifts thought process. Today life is driven by achievement and often joint achievement whether that be having a first child, running a marathon together, the wedding day, going up in a hot air balloon or even buying their first house. These achievements are solid experiences that mean a lot to the person or people involved and are typical ideas that need to be put into the presents for men options pot.

So when you are creating your presents for men ideas you might like to remember that there were experiences that mean a great deal to him that did not involve you like a classic bike ride or challenge he did with a friend, playing footy with Mike down the road, restoring an old car with mates from the car club, camping in Cornwall, waterskiing in the south of France, the list can be endless.

Presents for Men Tip #3 – Preferences

Presents for Men Tip preferencesOne of the other things that helps to come up with mens gift ideas is understanding their preferences. For example there is no point getting him something that is wine related if he is a beer lover and remember if you live with this bloke your preferences might have to get involved too.

Chances are that you have shared preferences when it comes to your home, although this is not guaranteed, for example liking wooden frames for pictures rather than white. Or knowing that your house is more black and white than red and blue in terms of home décor. Is there a preference for homely, country colours like greens and browns or do they love bright colours, stripes, or is there a generic colour that comes through via their love of a certain football club.

This reminds me of a story here on the south coast. You might or might not be aware of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. In fact some of my bio photos are taken in the coffee shop at the top.  Well, not long after Elaine and I visited the tower, which was all white at the time by the way, it was announced that Emirates were planning a sponsorship deal with Portsmouth Football Club. Now one of the key colours of Emirates is red and the plan was to re-paint the Spinnaker Tower partially red.

Supporters of the football club went bonkers because the main colour of Portsmouth Football Club is blue and to make it absolutely unbearable is that the red Emirates had chosen is the main colour of their arch south coast football rival Southampton. Needless to say the colour scheme was redesigned and it is now blue and white. So this is a clue on preferences.

Presents for Men Tip #4 – Locations

Presents for Men Tip locationLocation Location Location. Don’t forget this when trying to nail the perfect presents for men gift ideas.   All the work you have done above thinking about memories and experiences had to happen somewhere. My wife and I got engaged in Paris and married on the Greek island of Zante for example which would be good information for someone wanting to buy me a great gift, but the location does not have to be  abroad of course unless something special happened on holiday or on your honeymoon.

The bike ride they did might have just been London to Brighton for example, or your man might have been born in Cape Town, South Africa, or Sherborne in Dorset.  Perhaps they  had a memorable holiday with the ‘Lads’ in Ibiza . They might have taken a year out and traveled around Asia or Australia. They might have gone to the World Cup, chased the Ashes to Australia or something like that.

Their most important memory might have been going to and graduating from University, but which one? They might have cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, bungee jumped off a bridge in New Zealand, or run the New York Marathon.

When you think about it everything has to happen SOMEWHERE, and that ‘somewhere’ becomes very important to people and the location becomes a massive part of the visualization of any memory or experience.

Pretty much all of the custom gifts we create for people have some indication of location, mostly using maps but often words and sometimes the picture image portrays a location too, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris for example. So don’t forget this crucial location element of finding mens gifts.

Presents for Men Tip #5 – Unique, Individual & Original

Presents for MenThis is where you start to put it all together to come up with an unusual presents for men in your life.  If you want the best present for him then the main aim is to make sure that your man gift is Unique, Individual and Original.  You might be thinking how the hell can I do that?  But never fear there is a way you can create the perfect present and someone can make it for you.

What you need to do now is to bring together all the information you have assembled above, look at the options available and you could be giving a handmade, One-off or limited edition, attractive and extremely poignant gift to your man on their special day.

This is where you have to become a little creative so to help you out I will give you some real examples of actual commissions our customers have asked for to enable them to give that perfect gift.

Presents for men – Real Examples

mens gift ideasA couple had a close family friend.  All of them were into skiing and their friend was famous within their group of skiing buddies for skiing down a mountain wrapped in a Union Jack. His birthday was in a few days and they were struggling to decide what to get him as a present. They saw our skier cut out and our Union Jack fabric and their perfect gift search was over.

DragonDevilJenny’s father was going to attempt the famous Dragon Devil cycle ride in Wales and it was his 70th birthday  coming up. An enormous challenge with more than 6 massive climbs. This is an annual event and one that mad cyclists fight to get accepted to take part in. She asked us to use one of our Bicycle cut outs and use maps to signify important segments of the ride. This was the perfect birthday gift for her Dad.

CapriMk1-FrenchFlagJohn was visiting an old friend in France. This old friend had owned a Mark 1 Ford Capri and it had been a lasting memory for him and all their friends. John put together the two key items, Ford Capri Mk1 and France and so we created a cut out design of a Mk1 Capri and put a French Flag behind it. Delighted.

These are just some examples of how to take your hard work and come up with mens gift ideas. In a lot of cases we might be one jump ahead of you. Based on customer feedback and sales we have identified 3-4 fabric choices for each of our designs that are most popular. This does not mean that your perfect picture is not unique because the fabric placement within the picture is never the same twice.

But this does not take away your ability to make your own choices so you always have access to our wide fabric swatches and of course for that absolutely personal picture you can send us your own fabric. Clearly any map based perfect gifts are also unique to you.

So you have the idea distilled in your head, an idea of colours, locations, designs etc.  The next stage is pulling it all together and producing your perfect gift. This includes your own creativity, add some of our magic and you can create the perfect gift. This is the way to do it:

  1. Choose the cut out design from our online shop
  2. Select your choice of size (if available) and select your frame preference from the dropdowns
  3. Select your choice of popular fabric – or select the ‘Custom’ option and then
  4. Select from our wider swatch of available fabrics – or
  5. Send us your own fabric
  6. Make a map choice if this is part of the design (we will be in touch directly to confirm the exact locations)
  7. For all custom choices complete ‘order notes’ at checkout and we will contact you
  8. Select your delivery/collection option (only select local collection if you will be collecting from us in Dorchester)
  9. Pay via Paypal, Debit or Credit Card
  10. Then it’s over to us

So go to our online shop – Gecko Designs Shop – and get started. Need some more reassurance – have a look at what our delighted customers say. 

Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know how easy this is. Use our sharing options to tell everyone you know. We do run competitions and offer seasonal discounts so everyone can benefit from knowing a little more about Gecko Designs.

 

We hope our guide has helped you come up with some unique and great mens gift ideas

If there is a design that you feel you need to complete the picture just get in touch  we will do all we can to help.

All the best

Tim & Elaine