Why is Pinterest For Designers?
Now more than ever, we experience information overload. One of the keys to success in our design careers is being able to process information, stay on top of design trends, and filter out anything that isn’t useful or applicable. If used properly, Pinterest can be a great way to do all of this and do it effectively. Let’s take a look at Pinterest for designers and why you might want to use it in your daily workflow.
Stay organized
If you’re like me, you have hundreds, if not thousands of resources that you want to keep track of for later. For anything from font combinations to type styles and effects, you can keep track of all of it. The secret to keeping everything organized is using Pinterest boards. You can create as many as you want, and they are all for you. Have a project you’re gathering resources for where you signed a nondisclosure? That’s fine, just make the board a secret. That means that no one else can see it but you.
Think of Pinterest boards as categories, or different rooms. In each room, you’re collecting specific types of items. In one room, you might collect Photoshop tutorials for later. In another, you might collect different website layouts. If you ever run into something that could be in two different rooms, or boards, you can repin it to the second board without a hitch.
Stay Up on New Styles, Designs and Trends
People are constantly pinning things to their boards. You can follow or search topics, or you can scroll through Pinterest’s feed. It’s based on things you’ve looked at before and your interests, so you’ll find plenty of new stuff. You can be sure that a lot of the latest stuff is going to be on Pinterest, because it is so visual.
Get Inspired
Need a little inspiration? You might need to look at different approaches to solve different design problems. Pinterest is a good place to quickly browse through a ton of visual options.
Fight Designer’s Block
If you’re like me, sometimes you just get stuck. Your ideas feel stale, boring and unimaginative. When you feel like you’re in a rut, you can get your mind thinking again. Pinterest is one of those sites where you’ll see a lot of good design solutions packed into one area. Chances are, if it has 1000s of repins and shares, it’s probably a good idea or perceived as a good design. Can you apply a popularly-pinned design solution to your own project? Sometimes you just need to see things from a different angle.
Promote Your Portfolio
Pinterest drives a decent amount of traffic back to Creative Beacon, with no effort. The pins are there, getting pinned and repined each week. Imagine your design work getting pinned and repined on people’s boards every week. Over time, it will grow. Another thing to think about is that other people realize the power of Pinterest for designers, and you might end up on the board of a few business owners and entrepreneurs who will want to hire you.
Storyboard a Project
If you want to gather materials for a project, such as textures, colors, imagery, etc, pin it to a board created for that project. This will serve you well, because you can add to it, share it with team members or clients, and even invite them to pin some imagery or graphics they like. It’s a great way to collaborate with involved clients.
Conclusion
Had you considered using Pinterest for your design business? If not, you may want to reconsider. Pinterest for designers can be a valuable tool for collaboration, inspiration and promotion. How do you use Pinterest for your design work?
