Gifts for Engineers

Gifts for Engineers

Finding a good gift for an engineer is harder than it should be. Not because engineers are difficult - because most "engineer gifts" are novelty items that treat engineering as a personality type rather than a discipline. Mugs with circuit board patterns. Socks with wrenches on them.

What actually interests engineers is the specific, the precise, and the well-reasoned. The solution that does exactly what it needs to do and nothing it doesn't. The object that rewards close examination.

The Axisophy Gizmo collection is built around exactly that. Fifty-four precise technical illustrations of vintage computers, synthesisers, calculators and other consumer electronics from roughly 1965 to 2000 - the era when technology wore its engineering on the outside. Here are the best gifts for engineers, broken down by discipline.

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For software engineers and computer scientists

The Apple Macintosh 128K introduced the graphical interface to the mass market in 1984. The IBM 5150 set the template for personal computing in 1981 - Intel processor, Microsoft operating system, open architecture - and an entire industry grew from it. The Acorn BBC Micro put computing into British schools. The DEC PDP-8 was the first commercially successful minicomputer, putting computing within reach of universities and research labs for the first time.

Any of these prints works for someone who thinks about the history of computing as well as the present of it.

  • IBM 5150 - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    IBM 5150
    From £50.00 GBP
  • Acorn BBC Micro Model B - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    Acorn BBC Micro Model B
    From £50.00 GBP
  • Apple Macintosh 128K computer - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    From £50.00 GBP
  • DEC PDP-8 - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    DEC PDP-8
    From £50.00 GBP

For mechanical and electrical engineers

The Braun ET66 calculator, designed by Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs in 1987, is the calculator that Jony Ive reportedly used as a reference for the original iPhone calculator app. It is a study in reduction - every element necessary, nothing superfluous. For anyone who appreciates good industrial design, it's immediately recognisable.

The HP-35 from Hewlett-Packard was the world's first scientific pocket calculator, released in 1972. Engineers and scientists bought it when it cost $395 - roughly $2,800 in today's money - because it did in a shirt pocket what had previously required a desktop machine. HP projected sales of 10,000 units. They sold 300,000 in three years.

  • Braun ET66 calculator - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    Braun ET66 calculator
    From £50.00 GBP
  • Hewlett-Packard HP-35 calculator - vintage technology art print - Gizmo series
    Hewlett-Packard HP-35 calculator
    From £50.00 GBP

For aerospace engineers

The Radiance collection - NASA HiRISE orbital photography of Mars processed to reveal surface detail - sits at the intersection of engineering and science. HiRISE operates at 25 centimetres per pixel from Martian orbit. For anyone who works in aerospace or planetary science, these prints carry a different weight than they do for a general audience.

Radiance Collection

The Gizmo collection is adapted from Simon Tyler's forthcoming Laurence King book Gizmo: Retro-Tech We Loved and Lost, publishing May 2026. Browse all prints at axisophy.com/collections/gizmo. From £50.

Simon Tyler is a designer, illustrator and author based in St Leonards-on-Sea. He is the author and illustrator of Bugs (Pavilion, 2017), Adventures in Space (Pavilion, 2018), Adventures on Earth (Pavilion, 2019) and Emergency Vehicles (Faber & Faber, 2020), and the illustrator of The World's Most Magnificent Machines (Faber & Faber, 2020). His forthcoming book Gizmo: Retro-Tech We Loved and Lost will be published by Laurence King in May 2026.