Ten gifts for people who appreciate art, design, music, and the things in between.
Finding a gift for someone with a particular interest in art or design can be difficult. Chances are, they already know what they like. Another generic coffee table book probably isn't going to cut it.
A good art book offers something more: an unfamiliar artist, a different perspective, or a few hours inside someone else's creative process. And sometimes the right gift isn't a book at all. It might be an object for their desk, a place to keep their records, or a puzzle that doesn't need solving.
For our 2026 holiday gift guide, we've brought together ten favorites from the Olio collection. They move between photography, cinema, Japanese illustration, color, and the spaces we live in. Different interests, but a shared sense of curiosity.
1. Sofia Coppola Archive
For the person who notices the references behind the film.
Few filmmakers have developed a visual language as recognizable as Sofia Coppola's. Archive, her first book, offers a look at how that world comes together.
Published by MACK, the 488-page collection draws from her personal photographs, annotated scripts, reference collages, and behind-the-scenes materials. Spanning films from The Virgin Suicides to Priscilla, it brings the influences and working process into view.
It's as much a book about paying attention as it is about cinema. A thoughtful gift for someone interested in filmmaking, photography, fashion, or the connections between them.
2. Until Death Do Us Part by Thomas Sauvin
For the photography lover with an interest in everyday history.
A photography book disguised as a pack of cigarettes. Already an interesting start.
Until Death Do Us Part belongs to Thomas Sauvin's Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of discarded photographic negatives recovered from a recycling facility outside Beijing. This collection looks at the role of cigarettes in Chinese wedding celebrations, from gestures of hospitality to games and rituals.
The photographs are intimate, sometimes funny, and full of details that might otherwise have disappeared. The packaging makes the book itself part of the experience: a small object with much more going on inside than you'd expect.
Explore Until Death Do Us Part
3. Rêve Écarlate by Toshio Saeki
For an adult collector drawn to underground illustration.
Toshio Saeki's work sits somewhere between Japanese illustration, surrealism, eroticism, and the grotesque. It's difficult to categorize, and even harder to mistake for anyone else's.
Rêve Écarlate opens a chronological anthology of his work, bringing together drawings in which humor, sexuality, horror, and folklore meet. A composition can seem straightforward at first, then reveal something considerably stranger.
For someone interested in artists who work outside conventional boundaries, there's plenty to spend time with here. The explicit imagery makes this a gift for an adult whose tastes you know well.
4. A Dictionary of Color Combinations by Sanzo Wada
For the designer who always has a palette in mind.
Sometimes the most useful creative tools are also the simplest.
A Dictionary of Color Combinations collects 348 combinations developed by Japanese artist Sanzo Wada. Some feel quiet and harmonious. Others put colors together that you might not have considered.
Compact and bilingual in Japanese and English, it's a reference you can keep within reach rather than file away. Graphic designers, illustrators, and artists will find practical uses for it, but you don't need a project to enjoy turning the pages.
A small book that earns its place on a studio desk.
Explore A Dictionary of Color Combinations
5. A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2 by Sanzo Wada
For the person who already owns the first volume, or should own both.
More color, and more reasons to question why you keep choosing the same three shades.
The second volume draws on two further works by Wada. Inside are 72 patterns organized around the twelve months of the Japanese year, alongside 165 patterns drawn from early-twentieth-century fashion, interiors, and graphic design.
It's an interesting reminder that color doesn't belong to one discipline. A pairing found in a historical design can still suggest something useful for a photograph, a room, or a piece of clothing today.
If you're shopping for someone with a particular interest in color, we'd give the two volumes together.
Explore A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2
6. Death Book by Toshio Saeki
For the adult art collector who doesn't need a book to be comfortable.
Not every gift is meant to appeal to everyone.
Death Book brings together illustrations by Toshio Saeki, whose work pushes at the boundaries of taste, sexuality, and the familiar. Drawing on Japanese shunga and yōkai imagery, his visual world is populated by strange creatures, dark humor, and unsettling fantasies.
It's provocative and visually distinctive, the kind of book that rewards a closer look even when the subject matter makes you hesitate. An interesting gift for the right person, with explicit imagery that makes knowing your audience essential.
P.S. Olio is republishing the book soon, so keep an eye out.
7. Jazz Kissa: Japanese Jazz Cafés
For the friend who builds a room around the listening experience.
In Japan, the jazz kissa is more than a café. It's a space organized around listening.
Records, carefully assembled sound systems, and interiors shaped by years of use give these places a character of their own. Jazz Kissa: Japanese Jazz Cafés documents that culture through the rooms, equipment, and atmosphere that make each location distinct.
Music is the starting point, but there's plenty here for someone interested in interiors and the ways a personal obsession can shape a space. A natural choice for record collectors, audiophiles, and anyone who takes a good listening session seriously.
8. Churvy Record & Book Stand
For the collector whose favorites deserve to stay within reach.
A departure from the books, but part of the same conversation.
We designed the Churvy Record & Book Stand around a simple idea: the things we collect should be part of the spaces we live in. Made from chrome-plated steel wire and inspired by vintage record racks, it gives books, magazines, and records a place outside the stack on the floor.
It's functional without being purely utilitarian, and sculptural without demanding too much attention. A good gift for someone with records beside the turntable, books beside the sofa, or a growing collection of both.
Naturally, it pairs well with just about any book on this list.
Explore the Churvy Record & Book Stand
9. Cast-Iron Dolphin Paperweight
For the person who notices the small things on a desk.
Small in scale, heavy in hand.
Made in Japan, the Cast-Iron Dolphin Paperweight has a simplified silhouette and a dark, textured surface. It holds down papers, but its appeal isn't limited to the job it does. There's something satisfying about a useful object that also feels like a small sculpture.
At 4.5 inches long, it can sit among books or make itself at home on a workspace without taking it over. A thoughtful gift for someone who enjoys objects with a little character.
Pair it with one of Sanzo Wada's color books for a studio-desk gift that isn't another notebook.
Explore the Cast-Iron Dolphin Paperweight
10. Poker Face by Kensuke Koike & Thomas Sauvin
For the person who would rather rearrange a puzzle than finish it.
A puzzle without a single right answer.
Poker Face takes a portrait from the Beijing Silvermine archive and divides and duplicates it across 72 cards. Conceived by Kensuke Koike, the game invites you to rearrange those fragments into new, often surreal compositions.
The idea is simple. The results can be unexpectedly strange. Rather than working toward one finished picture, you keep finding another way to look at the same face.
A hands-on gift for photography lovers and anyone who likes experimenting with images. Give it alongside Until Death Do Us Part for two very different encounters with Thomas Sauvin's archive.
A Few Things Worth Giving
A good gift doesn't have to be universally appealing. Sometimes it's enough to introduce someone to an unfamiliar artist, a new idea, or another way of looking at something they already love.
That's what draws us to these books and objects. At Olio, we're interested in the places where art, design, music, and culture overlap. This selection reflects that curiosity, with different perspectives and a few things that resist easy classification.
For the collectors, the curious, and the people who are notoriously difficult to shop for.