The increased usability and sociability of the internet has redefined the marketing aspect of design culture. In essence, design is a commercial act. It is about creating or reworking a product that has a functional use in the world. A designer must be able to prove to consumers that her product has value and is able to fill a particular product need.
Pinterest is an internet catch-all of sorts. It can hold something special for pretty much anyone who uses it. For those interested in food, it’s a good way to share potential recipes and past successes and failures. I follow Angela Bolam, a friend of my mother’s, who, between her many Pinterest endeavors, keeps boards for recipes and crafts she has tried from Pinterest. Fashion lovers are able to pin boards upon boards of their favorite trends and updates from fashion shows. Two girls who go under the moniker The Coveteur are able to share photos of their favorite trendsetters, and even some of their own experiences in the fashion world.
There is a medical student who has a board for up and coming tech innovations. Fat Daddy Loves You posts entire series from photographers in a way that attempts to enact social change.
Generally speaking though, Pinterest has become a place where friends can follow each other’s boards. It has become possible to create a visible map of trends among a group of friends. Specifically, Pinterest is favored with girls because they can repin fashion trends from each other. Pinterest has become another vital part of an individual’s cyber-social experience.
For designers, Pinterest holds value as a valuable marketing tool. According to the Design Institute of Australia, designers are often self employed. The design job market is competitive and the freedom of self employment is attractive to most designers. Self employment makes confidence, talent, and great marketing skills vital to a designer.
The internet has enabled a designer to create her own blog and “website”lists, which can showcase her particular style and her ability. She can create a personalized home for her work that fits with the theme of her projects. The problem with this venue in the past is that the only way to advertise this website was through word of mouth. A designer could pass out business cards to friends, family, and strangers, but knowledge of her work rarely got past her own private sphere. There was no online common space for designers to promote their work.
This is where Pinterest has become absolutely vital.
Since its inception, Pinterest has advertised itself as a way for individuals to organize and share the things they love. It is a way to categorize one’s personal taste and it is a living catalogue of current trends. Basically, it is the perfect way for a designer to showcase her style and attract consumers to her products, and it adds a whole new level to the codesign process.
A typical perusing of Pinterest involves scrolling through pages and pages of pictures of ideas and products. Someone interested in planning a wedding may search for wedding invitations and pages of beautifully crafted invitations appear. The wedding planner can click on one that catches her eye and maybe fits the Western-chic theme of her wedding. She is brought to a designer’s personal website or Etsy page and can choose from a multitude of invitation designs that obviously fits her taste. She can also look at handmade stamps and sealing waxes.
This is what Pinterest has done for the design world. In almost every designer’s Pinterest bio is a link to her personal website. The consumer is instantly connected to the product in one common space. More so, designers can follow each other; envisioning and innovation have become a part of the designer’s online social experience.
Pinterest has essentially socialized design culture. Where once a self employed designer worked in the bubble of her private site and studio, now her work can be posted and shared with other designers and Pinterest users.
Banner self-made with some inspiration.