Your co-worker’s office cubicle looks like it’s about due for some sprucing up. Here are some gift ideas you can use to help him jazz up his space (or yours):

Cubicle life can be lonesome, so how about printing a cubicle companion? Printing? You heard me. Head on over to Cubeecraft where artist Chris Beaumont provides over two hundred free designs that can be printed and origami’d into “Cubees” depicting favorite pop culture icons, from the well-known (Superman) to the obscure (Jailbot from Superjail!). The cubical design is linear cool, with none of ’em looking out of place in a Herman Miller cubicle.

Each Cubee is ranked on a difficulty scale that gives you an idea how long it’ll take you to put it together – ideally in time for the office party. Print out thirty, and craft ’em for the rest of the office; just have an excuse handy when the office manager asks about your massive printing expenses.        read more..

If you want something more practical, give the gift that keeps on giving – freedom from H1N1. The Ottawa Citizen provides a few gift ideas in this direction – from an H1N1 Destroying UV Wand that you can wave over keyboards, cellphones, or desks to destroy 99.8% of H1N1 viruses after an exposure of five seconds, to a smaller Pocket-Sized Germ Eliminating Light that needs a 20-second exposure to do its job.

Finally, this gift idea takes the art of shuteye out of the office cubicle (when your boss isn’t watching!) down to the mean streets of New York – a standup bed proposed by the tongue-in-cheek Office for the Development of Substitute Materials.

The package includes a vertical bed that clips to any subway ventilation grating for support; opaque sunglasses; umbrella; and noise-canceling headphones. When not in use, it fits in a single briefcase!

Impractical? This device was actually tested during a 40-minute snooze along Broadway during the Conflux 2009 festival (a get-together for artists, technologists, and urban adventurers).