What's the point?
We use Pinterest to collect images that inspire us visually. And we always have our clients do the same when we work together on a project. By collecting these images, we can pick up on themes and ideas that clients may not even realize they are drawn to.
This Pinterest exercise is a key step in our branding process, because it helps us to develop mood boards for our clients. A mood board is basically a rough collage of colors, textures, and tone - all it takes to evoke a specific style or feeling. Mood boards don't represent any of the actual content or layout of a project. Instead, the goal is to evoke a reaction and makes you say, "THAT'S how I want my brand to feel!"
What do you do?
01 - If you don't have a Pinterest account yet, create one. Go to Pinterest and follow the prompts to sign up. This video cane help you learn a little more about what Pinterest is if you've never used it before.
02- Create a "board" on Pinterest for your brand exploration. Ours is called "We are 407" and is pictured above. It's a secret board, which means only those who it is shared with can see and "pin" to it. Whether you want your board public or private is totally up to you!
To create a board, click on your name in the right hand corner of the site. This is your profile. You'll see a red button that says "create board," click it and follow the prompts.
03 - Start "pinning" to your board. Pins are visual bookmarks from around the Internet world.
We only have one rule when looking for pins: keep your business in mind. Other than that, we're looking for anything and everything that inspires you. Pictures, colors, patterns, type styles, the list goes on and on. There's no limit on how many images you should pin, but we do recommend at least 20 images before you can start to get a feel for things.
You can "pin" things two different ways. (1) You can save anything you find around the web by adding the Pinterest browser button to the browser you use most. Or (2) try looking through Pinterest to see what other people have found. If you discover a Pin that looks interesting, just hover over the image and click the red "pin it" button. Make sure you select to send it to your brand exploration board. To get started searching we like to start in the Design category. We also suggest using the search bar to use keywords that match your project (i.e. "brand", "logo" or "packaging" for branding project) or your business specifically (i.e. bakery, kitchen, dessert for a baker)
It's up to you if you want to provide a caption with what inspired you about that particular pin.
Our board was inspired by handwritten elements, color, and clean lines.
Brand boards in real life.
Here's a brand exploration board for a client who is a baker. We were able to identify the trends that show us she is inspired shades of pink and florals.
Here's an example of a board exploration page for a client who is a personal trainer. Waves were an important theme to him so he searched the term "wave" and pinned images that inspired him.
Questions?
Feel free to email us at knockknock@fourohseven.com if you have any questions about using Pinterest to explore your brand. We'd be happy to provide more insight!