Graduation gifts tend to be money, a pen, or something with the year printed on it. Money is useful and soon spent. The pen goes in a drawer. What a graduate is actually about to need is a way to make an unfamiliar room feel like home: a dorm, a first flat, a rented room in a new city.
Art does that. It is also something they will keep, and remember who gave it to them. Here is how to choose it.
Start with where they are going
Leaving school for college
They are moving into a dorm or shared housing, with rules about walls and very little space. Give something that hangs without nails, packs small and survives being moved every year.
- A tapestry. The classic dorm piece. A 50 × 60 inch tapestry covers the wall behind a single bed and folds into a backpack. See the tapestries collection.
- Posters. Inexpensive, light and easy to put up with removable strips.
- A desk mat. It protects a desk they don't own and makes a study space feel like theirs.
Our guide to dorm room walls on a budget shows how these fit together.
Leaving college for a first job
They are moving into a first proper flat, perhaps in a new city. They want it to look like an adult lives there, and they have no money for furnishings.
- A framed poster. It arrives in a solid wood frame with hanging hardware. It is the single most grown-up thing on a first flat's walls. See the framed posters collection.
- A canvas. Ready to hang, with no glass to break in a move. See the canvas art collection.
- A desk mat for a first home office or work-from-home corner.
Finishing a postgraduate degree
They may already have a home, and what they have earned is a study or an office. A framed piece or a canvas for that room marks the achievement.
Subjects that suit the occasion
A graduation gift can carry a meaning without spelling it out.
- An owl. The symbol of wisdom since ancient Athens, and the obvious choice for a graduate. Frost Owl, a white owl with pale blue eyes in a misty forest, is calm and handsome enough for any study. We look at it in Frost Owl: a closer look.
- Space and the stars. Reaching, exploring, the unknown ahead. Hand of the Stars, an open hand reaching up through starlight, says it well.
- A phoenix. Phoenix Fire is the mythical bird that rises renewed, for someone who has come through a hard few years.
- A portal or a path. Lost Forest Magic Portal, a ring of light in a misty wood, is a doorway to somewhere new.
- Their city. The skyline of the place they studied, or the place they are from, to take with them. We have Chicago and Nashville pieces.
- A fox. Clever and adaptable. See fox symbolism in art.
Or simply what they love
Meaning is optional. The best gift may be the thing they are into: a neon city for a gamer, a galaxy for a science student, a cat for someone who is leaving the family cat behind. A piece that matches their interests will be on the wall longer than one chosen for its symbolism.
By budget
Prices are approximate, at the time of writing.
- Under $20: a keychain for the keys to their first place, or a set of pins for a bag. A good gift from a friend, a sibling or a teacher.
- $20 to $50: a desk mat, a poster, a graphic tee or a medium tapestry.
- $50 to $100: a large tapestry, a mid-size canvas or a framed poster.
- $100 and up: a large canvas. A gift from parents or grandparents that will anchor a first living room.
For more by price, see art gifts under $25, $50 and $100.
A group gift
A large canvas or framed piece is a good thing for several people to buy together: grandparents, aunts and uncles, or a group of friends. One substantial gift is often more welcome than five small ones.
If you don't know their taste
- Choose a safe subject. A landscape, a night sky or an owl suits almost anyone.
- Choose a small format. A keychain or a small poster doesn't presume to decorate their room for them.
- Ask. Send two or three options and let them pick. It doesn't spoil anything.
Our post on buying art for someone else's walls goes into this further.
Practical points for someone about to move
- Think about transport. If they are moving by car or plane soon, a tapestry or a rolled poster is easier than a large canvas. You could give a canvas after they have settled in.
- No nails. For dorms and most rentals, choose things that hang from removable hooks.
- Size down if unsure. Small rooms have small walls.
- Clothing sizes. Tees are made to order in the size you choose and can't be exchanged, so check first.
Timing
Everything is made to order. Allow 2 to 7 business days for production and 3 to 7 business days for US delivery, which is 5 to 14 business days in total. Graduation season is busy, so order three weeks before the ceremony or the party. If you are sending it to their new address, wait until they have confirmed it, and check it carefully: a package can't be redirected once it has shipped.
Add a note
Write a few lines about why you chose the piece. Years from now, that is the part they will remember when they look at it.
Browse the full collection to find something for the graduate in your life.