Jan 27, 2012
The new, visual social network, Pinterest, is really catching on. That’s a good thing for people who love art and fashion, design, and architecture — but that’s now all Pinterest has to offer. First, the basics: you sign up for an account at www.pinterest.com, and start “pinning” things to boards you categorize for yourself. For example, I have boards called “Geektastic,” “Living,” “Pets,” “Art,” “Food,” and so on. When you get the to the Pinterest home page, you are greeted not with text posts, but with beautiful, stunning photographs in all sorts of categories. You have options after that to “like,” “repin,” or “comment,” and to form links with people by following their pins. It’s a truly fascinating new way to interact with.
The reason artists and art lovers will appreciate this gem is because it is truly social art. You get to actually enjoy the view, as it were, and just soak in everyone’s favorite sights from all over the World Wide Web. When you “pin” something, you collect it. It becomes part of your own pin boards so that you can go back and view it whenever you have a mind to.
If you click on the Art or Design categories, what you will find is sometimes original artwork by the people who have it on their pin boards, and sometimes artwork by others that they have shared. Potentially this offers artists ways to network with one another in a concise, easy to manage area. It also exposes you to new forms of art and design that you might never have considered before.
Here are the basic opinions of Pinterest from the end user point of view, as gleaned from around the Web:
The Good
Pinterest is a truly interesting way to explore the Web visually based on interests. It allows you save or share images easily. Oh, and it’s free.
The Bad
It doesn’t play nice with Google Chrome sometimes, but knowing Google, they are probably already on this. Since it is so new, Pinterest still needs content in certain categorical areas on the site.
The Verdict
Discovering and exploring visual content in a whole new way is fun. Pinterest does a great job of rehashing the old idea of a virtual pinboard, but unlike past efforts by other companies, they have finally found a way to make it work well, and we love it.
So, artists and art lovers — get out there and start pinning!
