Vladimir Ayuev, a graphic designer, published an article on Medium especially for Behance Russia, explaining why every practicing designer should have a Pinterest account.

By the way, if you still doubt that Pinterest is the best option for storing your favorite pictures and inspiration, then study the 5 most popular analogs in the article “5 tools for storing inspiration.”

The time has already passed when the word “moodboard” was new.

It seems that we have all already learned how to collect mood boards and select references for the project.

Today, one of my main creative tools is Pinterest. I use this site so often that I cannot understand why many designers do not like it.

I believe that a designer needs to collect their “pins”, and I will try to explain why I am doing this.

1. Inspiration

The most understandable and popular use of Pinterest is finding and collecting references for work. Because nothing is born from scratch, but is a synthesis of at least two existing entities.

By the way, I usually collect working references in hidden boards after a funny story with their publicity happened. Somehow, our team was preparing for a branding tender for one large project. As we search for references in the Pinterest feed, we find our competitors’ board with the name of this project.
Of course, you can’t take much from there, but at least we were able to spy on the train of thought of our rivals. It is impossible to say whether this influenced the result in any way, but, by the way, we won that tender)

2. Watching

Our country does not have the richest visual culture, so it is especially important for a designer in Russia to cultivate a sense of taste.

Those. first of all, you need to learn how to feel beautiful pictures, and secondly, to make them.

Therefore, you have to watch a lot of pictures every day.

At the same time, do not forget that we are often faced with just pictures without description and we do not know the implication of their creation. Therefore, if you are interested in something, it is always an opportunity to try to dig deeper, look for the history of creation and see other works of the authors.

3. Structuring

The most important thing is that it is convenient to collect everything in separate folders – boards. How to categorize – what the fantasy is enough for.
In one of my boards, for example, I collect ready-made design moves – because, by and large, there is still a finite number of them. And in every project I go to this board and see if I can get something out of here.

4. Identifying patterns

I learned about this principle from Schneider. It lies in the fact that when you look at the pictures, you must try to turn off your head altogether and listen only to your first sensations: if something immediately yokes from the picture inside, you keep it to yourself. Then you look at what is being typed: is it possible to break it down into some categories? And so you can find out your taste – what you like on a subconscious level.

So, at one point I realized that I love masks. This is probably interesting, because any substitution of the usual image of a human face immediately causes quite strong emotions in us.

5. Collecting

For example, I also collect things that I like there: objects, furniture, sneakers, tattoos – interesting, crazy, or that I would like. Then I came across a pair of sneakers in the store, and I bought immediately, because I was already sure that I wanted to buy them.

In general, it again helps to understand yourself and removes the questions of choice.

6. Feel better upcoming / downward trends

Regularly watching the feed helps you to navigate what is happening with the trends at the moment.

By the way, about trends: in general, it seems to me, the decision to “follow the trend” should always be conscious and well-grounded on the part of the designer.

7. Explore

I like to explore topics that interest me by collecting and analyzing them.

For example, I have a board with anime backgrounds and landscapes. Because in anime, the atmosphere of the place in which the action takes place is always incredibly conveyed. How do they do it ?!

There is also a board called “Video Punches” where I collect cool images from video clips that somehow get stuck in my memory.

And there is a board with images that, for some reason, evoke the most powerful emotions.

8. Water and weed

Naturally, we must not forget to clean the feed – to unsubscribe from uninteresting boards and look for people to subscribe to, in order, on the contrary, to enrich the stream.

9. Stick to good use

Flipping the tape is a kind of relaxation. In fact, it’s just the same as a Facebook feed, only you’re spending your time with benefit.
In general, the more people develop their visual perception, the more likely it is that there will be fewer bad outdoor advertisements, bad signage and yellow-green fences around.

Who to subscribe to:

Schneider
Merdan
Kavko
Sasha Voronkov
Transformer Studio
Timur Zima
my