I Love Pinterest!

Whew, I’m so glad I got that off my chest! 

Since discovering the Pinterest website during its “beta testing” back in 2010, I knew it was love at first “site.”  As a costume designer and textile historian, collecting visual data have been a part of my process since my first fashion class way back before the turn of the century.

For designers, visual research is an ongoing activity. The goal is to gather images that stimulate and excite, that spark creative thought, and capture a mood, color or texture. The real trick is finding ways to organize and store our personal hoard of pictures.

Design Inspirations

Back in the 80’s, this was about chopping up magazines, catalogs, and brochures and storing them in folders, albums, or boxes.  In the 90’s, with the rise of affordable photography via digital media, it became easy to snap an endless, and hard-drive filling, stream of inspirational photos.

Today, the internet is a vast sea of imagery from around the globe.  We don’t have to wait for the next magazine to arrive in the mail, or for daylight to explore a garden.  Today, we can seek out images 24/7.

Pinterest – Organization for Visual Thinkers

Pinterest allows users to save images that link to sites around the globe.  You get to organize collected images into categories that you place on boards. At right, you can see a small selection of the numerous boards I’ve made over the past 8 years.  Each board is devoted to a theme, mood, or style.  (If you want to see the whole kit-and-caboodle, you can click through to my Pinterest profile.

New Section Feature

In fall of 2017, Pinterest released a new feature that is a boon for people who are seeking to streamline their profile page.  The new “Section” feature allows the user to break up a board by type. If you look at the image above, you can see that I’ve devoted several pages to an ever-growing collection of images about my favorite fabric, Assiut.  Now, with the new “Section” feature, I can collect all my images into one board, and then within the board, add subdivisions so it’s easier for me locate a specific image again.

I think the home decorating analogy works best.  Imagine that you are planning a roof to basement remodel of your home.  In the past, you might have a board to devoted to kitchens, and another to living room, and another for the bathroom.  Now, with the new section features, you can have a board called “Home” with each room becoming its own section.

Cue the YouTube Demo

Rather than tell you about it, I took a moment to put together this demo of how I’m using the new feature to organize my own boards.

I hope this demo has helped give you a little peek into the power of this new Pinterest feature. If you have a Pinterest account and a board you would like to share, send me a link via email or come and join the conversation on the Studio Davina facebook group.

Best of luck with your Pinning adventures!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Jan. 11, 2018