With your lovely pictures of shirt-less Ryan Gosling (or other attractive actor-of-choice), recipes and crafts, you could keep a society of women (and men) candle-making, knitting and baking like its the 1950s. Hello, Mrs. Cleaver wanna-bes.
But seriously. It's addictive - apparently.
I am sure you all have heard of this, but it is the latest social media network to take the Internet by storm. It is a closed beta site, which means you have to be invited to join, but it consists mostly of images people have pinned of food, wedding/engagement/baby announcements and other graphic element.
I became a member in December and besides pinning my holiday reading list and making a few recipes, I have pretty much left the website alone. However, I didn't realize the benefits it could have for me as a designer-to-be until I heard it described as a GRAPHIC social networking site. Maybe I just wasn't giving it as much thought as the homemaker/crafting types.
Then I ran across this article on Imprint, my blog-of-the-semester, and it discussed by designers should be taking a look and pinning on Pinterest.
"While many of the good moms using Pinterest aren’t clued in to the latest design looks, they are a madly appreciative crowd - if you offer up your gorgeous images, you will be met with copious applause. Anyone posting their portfolio to Behance or Core77 should double up with a little Pinterest test."
-Jude Stewart, Imprint
I don't know if I would post my portfolio on Pinterest, I think many wedding photographers would stand a good chance since society seems to be obsessed with weddings right now ("Say Yes to the Dress," "Four Weddings," need I say more). For designers, however, I think it could potentially be a good way to get feedback. Although I fear that pinners would be like when your grandmother gives you feedback, everything is great - just some things are more great than others. That is also the philosophy in community newspapers if you live in a town with a community theater.
The info for designers is brief, however, it has given me a new appreciation for the website besides the tasty slice of chocolate chip banana bread that I made from a Pinterest pin that I am enjoying while I write this post.
OK. Maybe I am a bigger fan than I let on.
Happy, pinning and perusing!
My advisor was actually telling me I should join Pintrest. I have yet to act upon it, but, I must say, she was pretty persuasive. She was showing me people she follows who post cool typography. Additionally, I supposed if people are posting their graphic design up there for feedback, the site can also act as a portal of inspiration for those not posting and just looking. I'm sure if I got Pintrest, I would be obsessed. I have yet to find a user who is not.
ReplyDeleteI do pin, and in fact, just added a design board. I have decided to pin the things that inspire me as a designer for reference points later on. What's also great about it is that you can see what people are naturally drawn to graphically so you can follow popular trends. I would say try it again. I'll admit I didn't use it much until recently, but I think it just needed to get more users posting more content for it to really be interesting, and worth scrolling through. I just hope it isn't bombarded with promotional stuff. OH! And BHG has a profile that you could probably snatch photos from if you needed something for Meredith.
ReplyDeleteHi I'm Whitney. I'm addicted to Pinterest. But really...anyways. After reading this post I looked over some of the things that I've pinned, and it's astonishing how many of them I pinned because they were visually appealing. For example, I'm a vegetarian and I repinned a picture of meat. Obviously I'm never going to make that meal or touch it, but the photo was gorgeous! My visual senses are always in tact even when I'm trying to focus on social media. Good? Bad? I don't know, but I'll go with it for now!
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