Pinterest for Branding

I love Pinterest. I can spend hours scrolling through my feed, pinning stuff for different projects – I’m a DIY fiend, so anything interiors is good by me, plus design and website stuff is totally my bag.

I love it way more than Instagram – yes I know!

But it is also one of the main tools I use to help my clients when it comes to branding their business. As I always like to say, a logo is not a brand, and using a tool like Pinterest is super helpful when it comes to figuring out your sense of style, typography and visual design. Which is why I’ve put together this guide for using Pinterest for branding.

Not everyone can visualise a brand, or a website, so using Pinterest can really help you nail the look and feel of a new website or branding for you without overthinking it. There’s just a few rules to stick too and once you understand how it works, you’ll have a finely tuned branding board that suits your business to a tee.

So first things first, go create a board and get pinning!

I always tell my clients to create five different sections on their boards otherwise it will all get jumbled up and you’ll end up in a Pinterest vortex where you emerge 10 days later having pinned 39575894 images of bathrooms, logos, DIY hacks and everything else that flashed in front of your eyes.

Inspiration imagery and general mood

• Inspiration imagery and general mood
• Colour Palettes
• Fonts/typography
• Website Layout Ideas
• Logo ideas (if you want a new logo)

All of these things will help give you a big broad palette of design choices that you can then distil down to make sure you are absolutely nailing your brand.

INSPIRATION & MOOD

When it comes to mood and inspirational imagery, try not to think about anyone else’s website design or logo. Just pin stuff that appeals to you. Whether that’s a cabin in the woods, an image of textiles, a lovely pair of shoes or a pattern or two. This is about picking out elements and a vibe that distil your brand. But don’t fall into the trap of trying to copy someone else’s brand. Try and realistically think about what your business is about and what appeals to you.

PERFECT COLOUR PALETTES

Colour is really important when it comes to building your perfect brand. Along with your inspirational imagery, it is the foundation of your mood. If you have an idea of what kind of colours you might like, just head on into Pinterest and search for your chosen colour palette – i.e. orange, yellow, pink colour palette.

FONTS/TYPOGRAPHY

So many fonts….. so little time. I love fonts. All kinds of fonts. Designers get really excited about fonts. We don’t get out much. But too many fonts can be a headache and make your brand look messy, whilst the wrong choice of font can totally ruin the aesthetic of your website. So be careful about what fonts you choose. Once you’ve gather all your font inspiration together, distil them down to just three fonts.

LOGO IDEAS

Whether your fancy a hand drawn logo, a cool Serif classic logo or something big, bold and beautiful, there are lots of logos to find inspiration from. Pin to your hearts content but don’t forget to try and focus on what you like rather than it being just something very fashionable at the moment.

Website Layout Ideas

When it comes to designing your website, it’s important to understand what kind of layout you actually prefer. Some people prefer a layout with lots of white space, some people want a website that makes you want to explore more, and some people want a design that is busy and grabs your attention straight away.

Creating a Pinterest board for Website layout ideas will help you understand what style you want so when it comes to choosing your website template or designing a custom site, you can narrow down your choices much more easily rather than being distracted by all the other sites. Use terms like ‘web design layout’ or ‘web layouts’ in Pinterest and pin ones you like. you can narrow it down further by including the kind of thing you’re looking for, eg: fun modern bold web layouts.

Don’t just be led by colour or fonts at this point, we’re also looking at layout, white space, unusual design choices, and design elements.

When you’ve got all your boards together, this is when the magic happens. We take all of your boards and put together a final board that includes elements of each of your design inspiration. We talk about what led you to each choice and why you like it and if we should incorporate it into your overall design.

It really is lots of fun building a Pinterest branding board and it can really help you understand just what it is you love when it comes to style.

Happy Pinning!