You’ve done the research, narrowed down your message, it’s time to get started on the collaboration Pinterest board! Now it’s the fun part. But Pinterest can quickly turn into a black hole and soon enough you look around and you’re not sure where you are or how you got there. If your goal is to build a board of brand inspiration stick to these tips and instructions to ensure you have plenty of content, inspiration, and variety! If you see something you feel reflects your business and relates to the target market, pin away, don’t box yourself in! Just be sure to cover the listed categories so we have a variety of elements to work from.
Required Categories
Patterns (5-7)
Patterns quickly affect how space feels in regards to size. These can range from illustrations and icons to repeating lines. Try searching for “patterns,” “design patterns,” and “hand-drawn patterns.” That will surely give you a quick start. Watch out for the possible distraction of sewing patterns, they can pop up from time to time during this search!
Textures (5-7)
The feel, appearance or consistency of an element or surface is its texture, and they affect the feel and mood of a space. From cotton to marble and anything in between, textures have a wide reach. Search on Pinterest for “textures,” “texture patterns,” and “texture design.”
Logos (6-9)
Pinning logos of other businesses and organizations on your Pinterest board is a great way to have a common reference point for a designer and a client. Some design solutions for logos work best with a short name or with only one word in the business name. Other solutions may be visually attractive, but don’t apply as well in your industry. By looking at other examples we are able to quickly get on the same page for a design direction, and if your vision may not fit the ideal direction for the intended audience, we can discuss why by looking at the example logos you’ll be pinning for inspiration.
Colors (5-20)
This one is a bit more difficult to quantify. If you are pinning pins that are color schemes (a few specific colors called out in squares) then we’ll not need as many to narrow down your vision for color. If you find yourself pinning images that have one primary color you will need to pin more images to help guide some additional information. When pinning images with one primary color, pin multiple variations of them. If you feel purple represents your business best, pin 5 different shades/versions of purple! And add at least one secondary color, pin about 5 of those too. You can search on Pinterest by individual color, or search “color palettes,” and “color schemes.”
Fonts/Lettering (7-10)
Sometimes this category can cross over into a few of the others, which is why I love lettering and type so much. Try searching “serif fonts,” “sans-serif fonts,” “typography,” and “typography design” to get started. You’ll find that lettering can be a lot more than just an image with the alphabet typed out. These inspirational images can be useful to use as additional brand elements for your print collateral and website to add a level of interest and importance to certain messages.
Illustrations (5-7)
When looking at logos, you may be drawn to a certain style, clean, modern, sharp lines, or maybe the opposite and love the more organic style. Seek out illustrations with not only content that you appreciate and respect, but also those with the style that you are drawn to. Check out my illustration board to get started.
Icons and Icon Sets (4-6)
After adding logos and illustrations to your Pinterest board you may wonder why we specifically need to add icons and icon sets to the board, but trust me, the more information we have the better. Each visual elements tells a different part of your story as a brand. While the logo will be a very general overview of your brand, the icon set reaches the next level of communication and often represents specific services, categories, or types of clients your business serves. This is a lot more information than we directly communicated in a logo. These icons are valuable! Try searching “icon set _______,” with your industry or with a specific style in the blank.
Editorial Design (6-9)
Magazines, brochures, and flyers would all fit into this category. When it comes to putting pieces together, everyone has a different vision. This section can really help us communicate effectively about your vision regarding a huge deal breaker for some folks, white space. Some people love it, some loathe it. Search on Pinterest for “editorial design,” or “editorial layout” to find pins for your branding Pinterest board. Try to avoid pinning 9 examples of magazines, but branch out to a few other print examples like business cards, and letterhead.
Web Design (5-7)
While we may come to some of the same conclusions with web design examples and editorial design examples, the two are very different. If you’re planning on having a blog section on your website make sure you include specific pins of blog layouts. If you come across some email marketing examples that you like, pin them as well; they communicate in a similar way that websites do because of their medium.
Photos (7-9)
In order to pull together all the elements and create effective websites, brochures, and online posts, we need photos! While all of these elements are visual, photos are the one element that the user can most quickly and easily see themselves in. This is an advantage beyond belief. Don’t hold yourself back in this part of the assignment. You may offer services of kitchen remodels, but that doesn’t mean a kitchen will be required in every single photo that represents your business. This portion may require you to browse outside of Pinterest and to link those images manually to your Pinterest board. Checkout Pexels, Unsplash, and Burst.
Past the Pin
When adding your pins on the Pinterest board, be sure to edit the description noting why you are pinning it (pattern, logo, color, etc) so we know why we are looking back at the pin. The more information you can provide with each pin the better. Consider the following questions:
Why am I pinning this?
Is it a texture, pattern, logo, color, or overall design aesthetic that I’m drawn to?
What specifically do I like about this?
If it’s an example of a font, maybe you specifically love the way the “L” looks in the lettering, write that down!
What do I not like about this?
Overall you like the pattern of the umbrella, but you aren’t a fan of the colors, that’s fine, we can create anything together!
Your Pinterest board should begin to have a little bit of a cohesive feel, and if it doesn’t that’s alright, because your notes show narrow down your vision even more. If looking at your Pinterest board including your notes and you’re not sure about the consistency, take a day break and revisit the inspiration you’ve pinned. Now get pinning!
