A leaving gift for a colleague, made from the team photo
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Upload the team photoYou see it on the object before you confirm. From $23.00, shipping included.
Printed to order, shipping included.
Leaving gifts are hard for a boring reason: everything obvious has already been given to someone else in the same office. A bottle, a voucher, a plant. The person says thank you, and the object is gone in a month.
A photo of the team is the exception, because it is unrepeatable. It is also the gift people keep on a desk in the next job, which is the actual test.
1. Which object, depending on the relationship
| How close you worked | What works | From |
|---|---|---|
| Daily, same team, same room | A mug. It goes straight onto the new desk and gets used every morning. | $23.00 |
| Years together, or a manager the team liked | A framed print, 21 × 29.7 or 30 × 40 cm (11.8 × 15.7 in). Displayed, not used — and delivered assembled. | $55.00 / $75.00 |
| A large team, everyone wants to write something | A pack of 10 postcards with the team photo. Each person writes one; the leaver goes home with ten notes. | $26.00 |
| Someone who commutes, cycles, carries a laptop | A tote bag — used in public, which is half the point. | $35.00 |
One rule that saves regret: a leaving gift should be usable in the next job. An in-joke printed large is funny in the room on the day and awkward on a desk three months later.
2. Making a team photo printable
Most team photos share the same two faults, and both are fixable.
- Taken from too far away. Half the frame is ceiling and carpet. Crop to the group: the room is not the subject.
- Taken from above, because whoever held the phone was standing. Faces foreshorten and everyone looks down at the lens.
If you have a week, take a new one. It takes two minutes: everyone seated or standing close together, a plain wall behind, daylight from a window in front of them, and the phone held at the group's eye level. Burst mode, and use frame seven where nobody is blinking.
Use the original file from the camera roll. A photo forwarded around a group chat has been recompressed once per forward, and on a 30 × 40 cm (11.8 × 15.7 in) frame that shows.
3. What to collect per person
This is where a collection usually overshoots. The price you see here is the whole price — shipping is inside it — so the arithmetic is simple and there is no delivery surprise at the end.
In a team of five, a mug is a couple of euros a head. In a team of ten, a framed print is a few euros a head. If the collection ends up larger than the gift, the usual good answer is to add a second object rather than a bigger one: a framed print for the leaver and a mug each for two people who worked closest with them.
And if the team is genuinely large: from 10 items in the basket, 10% comes off automatically; from 25, 15%. Nothing to enter.
4. When to order
Count 5 to 10 working days in the UK, Europe and the US, up to 15 elsewhere, printing included — then add a few days of margin, because leaving dates move and send-offs get brought forward. Two weeks before is comfortable. Three days before is a gamble you will lose at least once.
The estimated arrival date is calculated and shown on the product page before you order, so you can check it against the date of the send-off rather than guessing.
5. Are you allowed to print a photo of colleagues?
Worth thirty seconds of thought, and the answer is usually yes with one step.
In the European Union, a photograph in which people are identifiable is personal data under the GDPR. For a small internal gift this is not a compliance project, but the people in the photo should know it is being printed and be able to say no. A message in the team channel — "we're putting the away-day photo on a mug for Sam, shout if you'd rather not be on it" — covers it.
It also solves a non-legal problem: in every group photo there is one person who hates how they look in it, and they would much rather tell you before it is printed than after.
Two things to avoid regardless: photos taken by a professional photographer, which belong to the photographer, and anything with a client, a badge number or a screen full of internal data visible in the background.
6. What to write on it
Keep it short and keep it datable. The team name and a year ages well. "Thanks for everything, 2019–2026" ages well. A running joke about the coffee machine does not.
Add the text into the image itself before uploading, with any phone editing tool, and the preview shows you exactly what will be printed — including whether the mug handle hides the end of a long line.
In short
- Use a photo of the team: it is the only gift nobody else can buy.
- Crop to the group, or retake at seated eye level against a plain wall.
- Mug for a close colleague, framed print for years of work, postcards for a big team.
- Tell the people in the photo. It is both the law in the EU and good sense.
- Order two weeks before the send-off.
Before you order, the preview is computed in your own browser and nothing is transmitted; the print file goes to the printer at payment and is deleted after dispatch. Personalised items are exempt from the standard European right of withdrawal (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 16(c)), and anything that arrives damaged is reprinted at no charge.
Frequently asked questions
What should we give a colleague who is leaving?
Our team photo is bad. Can we still use it?
How much should we collect per person?
How long before the send-off should we order?
Are we allowed to print a photo with colleagues in it?
Can we add a message?
Upload the team photo: you see it on the mug, the frame and the rest, with prices.
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