Trying to find meaningful, thoughtful or simply decent presents for someone special at Christmas can be a colossal pain in the feckin’ arse.
You end up spending a valuable weekend afternoon trudging across Dublin through masses of slow-moving walkers in the (a) freezing cold or (b) pissing rain. At the same time you’re trying to hold on for dear life to flimsy paper bags laden with crap that you’re lugging around town.
I’m sure that sounds like heaven if you actually enjoy Christmas shopping, but for normal human beings it’s a nightmare.
That’s where designist comes in
The shop swoops in like some sorta angel of mercy, making buying presents even easier than a Sunday morning.
And yes, the name begins with small “d” — so you know you’re dealing with something special here.
For the uninitiated, the George’s Street store strives to discover “remarkable gifts and bright ideas” from around Ireland and the world to populate their shelves, counters, tables and anyplace else they can squeeze in goods.
Which means?
Which means, dear reader, that the place is like a feckin’ curated gift guide. Another way of putting it is that designist a bit like a regular shop, just without all the shite.
These guys got a little sumthin’ sumthin’ for the whole family/one girlfriend. They’ve got presents for…
Those who love card games almost as much as they love puns
Arty types
Book worms
The caffeine-addicted cyclist in your life
And people who are children
Not to mention all the Christmas cards that just seem to scream, “I’ve an amazing sense of humour and also I spent ages looking for this”.
With such an eclectic mix of unique little objects, it couldn’t be easier to appear thoughtful… when it reality you spent less than an hour ticking off pretty much your entire Christmas present list.
And when it comes to your Kris Kindle at work, you need only grab something at random and it’ll probably be grand.
The downside?
If we’ve any gripes, it’s that at the height of the silly season frenzy you’ll be struggling to navigate between tables and shelves in the cramped space, so try to get in as early as possible.
If you’re not into the whole browsing thing, you can always take the more convenient (and lazier) option of buying your designist pressies online HERE and getting ’em delivered to your door (it’s €6 for two-day delivery or €7.50 for express).
They’ll even wrap the gifts for you, meaning you’ll have expended precisely fuck all of the effort involved in this process.
You can find designist at 68 South Great George’s Street and it’s open from 10am-6.30pm every day except Thursday (10am-8.30pm) and Sunday (12pm-6pm).
Haters of Christmas shopping, you’re welcome.