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A couple weeks ago we launched our new design for Pinterest profiles and we got a lot of great suggestions from Pinners.

One of the most requested features was the ability to choose a pin to be the cover for each board. Today, you’ll be able to do just that:

If you’d prefer a specific pin as a board cover, mouse-over the board you want to edit and click “Edit Board Cover”. Next, select a cover pin and drag it to the exact position you want.

When you’re finished, hit “Set Cover”.

You can also choose a board cover while you’re browsing within your board: Just mouse-over any of your pins to select it.

Covers on collaborative boards can only be selected by the Pinner who created the board. Other than that, you can choose new covers as often as you’d like, so we hope you’ll have fun customizing the look of your boards and profile.

As always, we consider this new feature a work-in-progress and we really appreciate all the feedback we received about it along the way. Let us know your continued thoughts and Happy Pinning!

—Grace Porter, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Home.

We believe everyone’s Pinterest boards are a window into all the things that inspire them every day. We wanted to make Pinterest profiles as beautiful and informative about your interests as possible. Today, we’re starting to roll out a new version of profile and we wanted to share a few of the details.

The biggest change is next to your basic profile information: It’s a card called “Repins From”. As the name indicates, this card shows you 3 people you frequently repin from. It’s a great way to discover new people to follow.

Next, we reimagined Boards themselves. By pulling out the most recent pin and giving it center stage, boards now have a larger point of focus. Redesigning something as fundamental as the board was tricky. We tried more than 20 versions before arriving at the current design. The more we used this new layout as a team here in Palo Alto, the more we enjoyed it. We hope you feel the same way!

Centralizing profile navigation was also key. Even seasoned Pinners had trouble finding out who follows them and who they’re following. We decided to put all of the profile navigation in one bar so you always know where to look to find your profile’s core information. You can also rearrange your boards by hitting the button next to “Edit Profile.”

We also added a new view called Activity. When you’re browsing your friends’ profiles, it helps you see all the things they’ve been doing on Pinterest. It’s a great view to quickly see how much someone is pinning and commenting, who they decide to follow, or keep track of the things you’ve been doing yourself on your own profile!

Lastly, your profile image, description, and website are all at the top of the page, so people can get a great idea of who you are really quickly. This design also gives your pins and pinboards a lot more space to shine.

We think this new profile is a step forward in representing you and helping you discover interesting things and people. We always welcome and consider feedback. Like everything at Pinterest, our new profile is a work in progress that we will continue to improve.

Happy Pinning!

Recently we updated the Pinterest Etiquette - a few guidelines that help make Pinterest the warm and creative community it is today.

We’ve been hard at work on Pinterest app for iPhone for a good few months now and we’re extremely excited to finally have it in the hands of our awesome users. Try it out here.

I (this guy) was responsible for most of the app that you get to play with starting today. So, if there’s anything you don’t like about it (or anything you do!), feel free to write on my wall.

I just wanted to talk a little about the app itself (and its uses!) as well as some of the product decisions that went into it.

A native mobile experience.

It’s very easy to take an existing web experience and quickly port it into a mobile one. But I don’t really believe in that method. After all, you already use your phone very differently from your computer. Usually in small short bursts, with one hand, on a much smaller screen.

I looked at the potential of what Pinterest would look like if it was designed for the phone from day one. And that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t want the mobile experience to feel like a companion app, but rather an independent experience (and maybe even the primary way you use Pinterest).

Pinning on the go.

I love being able to see people’s amazing tastes in the things they share from around the web. I’m really excited by the opportunity to see what people can discover and share with Pinterest on the go.I’ve used it to share amazing meals I’ve had, crazy looking buildings around my neighborhood, and famous landmarks around San Francisco, and I can’t wait to see what everyone else uses it for. Less tapping more pinning! The usage patterns of mobile apps are very different from those on the web. It is much more likely to fire up Pinterest while in line at the grocery store or while taking public transport to work. I built the app with that experience in mind.The app is extremely quick to load, and I put a lot of effort into making the app easy to use with just one hand. You can go from your feed, to a pin, to a user, to a board, to a pin, and beyond… with just one hand (while your other holds onto your groceries, for example).Less is more, and for the app that means that less tapping means more browsing and pinning. And who doesn’t like more browsing and pinning?!

Besides typing a comment or description, the entire app is very easily browsable using either hand. You can like and repin pins from the feed with a single tap, and you can browse your entire home feed with zero.

I spent a lot of time designing the filter selection interface. It’s extremely fast and you don’t need to tap each filter to try it out. Rather, you can swipe between all of the filters (even while they process) and tap once to choose the one you like best. It’s super slick.

Of course, those are just a limited selection of the probably hundreds of decisions I’ve made so far. Every single screen you’ll interact with using the app has been designed (even Apple’s native camera interface has been modified, integrating a library button to save a single tap).

The party’s just getting started.

You may not know this, but Pinterest.com has been iterated over 30 times. I think there’s a lot of value in iterating often, especially when your app is in the hands of real users using it in the real world. Just like the website, I intend to continue iterating on the app, designing, removing, re-designing, re-removing, adding, chopping, slicing, slowly getting closer and closer to this thing I like to aim for called perfection. So please, if you have any feedback, hit me up - good or bad!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for using Pinterest (on the web and on your phone)!

And if you haven’t downloaded it for whatever reason, get it here.

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Apartment Therapy.

Last Friday we updated the official Pinterest logo! When first designing Pinterest, we wanted a scripty font to contrast with our boxy pinboards. We chose Bello Script. While we thought it was decent, we’d always been itching for something a bit more distinctive.

To help us out, I contacted Michael Deal. I’ve always LOVED Michael’s work, which ranges from apparel to infographics (http://www.mikemake.com). Michael also invited his friend, Juan Carlos Pagan (Carlos) to help out. Carlos is a typographer and designer studying at CooperType. He brings a rare old-world craft to his type projects (http://jcpagan.com). It was incredibly exciting to work with two such talented guys and they were kind enough to share a bit more about their design. Get their design notes after the jump.

Michael (http://www.mikemake.com)

The visual surprises that can emerge during some projects can be the best part of the design process. But designing the new Pinterest logo had relatively few surprises. The final mark is pretty close to the ideas I discussed with Ben in our initial chats, and I’ve been reminded of how satisfying a project can be when things end up nearly exactly as first envisioned.

After we weighed some different approaches to bundling the kit of logo elements, it became clear that this was not a time to get too clever with the brand’s kit of parts. We opted to follow a proven model of using a logotype as the primary mark and site header, and developing a badge-like mark that repeats the initial letter “P.”

It was uniquely easy to get a good undersatnding of the Pinterest audience. The whole site is a giant dynamic moodboard for its users (if only every project could have that luxury!) We agreed that the previous logo was already a start in the right direction, and that keeping with a script logotype was appropriate. But there are an infinite number of voices a script can have:

We needed something that seemed casual, but that also carried signs of careful craft. It was important to sense the touch of the hand in the forms, but to stay subtle. We also wanted it to carry a feeling of nostalgia, without seeming retro. The need for contemporariness drove many of the initial experiments, where I played with fully upright scripts, and tuned down the range of line weight variance. The bolder type also served well under the ever-present logistical issue that the logo would be seen almost exclusively on screens at only a few pixels tall, where small details don’t translate well.

We used ligatures to signal the brand’s appreciation for thoughtful craft, without resorting to something overtly hand-touched or ornamental. I wanted to make sure to leave the “P” freestanding and to force the letters in “interest” to connect. This allowed for some unique moments in the second half of the word.

Carlos (http://www.jcpagan.com/)

ike came to me with a bunch of really great sketches of logotype ideas and all we had to do was put the finishing touches on it. As we were digitizing the logotype, we encountered some interesting opportunities. For instance we found by using the discretionary “st” ligature we were able to balance out the weight of the “P” to visually bookend the logotype.

Another fun moment was the “re” connection. We experimented with a more traditionally scripted “r,” but came to the conclusion that by using the lowercase italic “r” we could give the logotype a bit more own-ability and charm. It also happens to be my favorite moment in the logotype.

The component we finished last actually has the lead role in the identity: the “P.” We auditioned many shapes to find one with distinct personality. For most of the project, I had avoided making visual reference to the image of a pin because it seemed too literal. But the “P” started to lend itself too well to the shape of a map pin. Carlos and I spent a good bit of time finessing the character to find the right degree of suggestion. Too much of a pin shape compromises legibility, where too much subtlety leaves less justification for attempting the concept in the first place.

Carlos and I agree that this was a great collaborative experience with Ben, Paul, and their team. We’re excited to see what’s next for Pinterest!

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to A Few Big Words.

Today, we’ve made commenting easier by letting you add a comment directly from the home page. Why do we like comments so much?

For starters, commenting is really useful. When I saw a cool olive oil dish and wanted to know where I could pick it up, I was able to ask my Pinterest friends for help. Thanks to Matt, I found it.

Comments are also really helpful to find out what other people think. I’ve been considering replacing my iPhone for months. It was great to get feedback from some of my friends on the new android phone I ended up ordering.

Our little team doesn’t think of a ‘pin’ as just an image. Pins are living pieces of information: an image, a source, a personal description, a list of people who think it’s cool, and (hopefully) a lively discussion that adds context and useful information.

The new comments are live right now! Give it a shot. You never know who might write back :)

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to The Kitchen.

Have you ever pinned something, only to see it repinned and then liked by dozens of other users. Have you ever wanted to say — “Hey I pinned that first!”

Today we’re testing a new feature to show you everyone who liked your pin after it was repinned by another user. On some of your pins, you’ll notice a little strip like this.

You can click to see everyone who liked your pin after it was repinned. The stats in your profile will also update.

Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be adding new features to try and reward the effort and creativity that goes into a great pinboard. Stay tuned…

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Sweets.

We’ve just added a new feature to Pinterest: pinboard categories. Lots of people said they didn’t want to tag every pin on a board with a general topic such as food, art, or books. That’s where categories come in.To help categorize all the pinboards, we’re letting anyone suggest a category for any pinboard. If you suggest a category, the pinboard owner will receive an email asking if they’d like to keep the category or change it. As categories spread, it will become easier and easier to discover new pins you’re interested in.Even though pinboard categories aren’t the flashiest feature, it’s something I’m really excited about. To start adding categories, visit your profile page and click the edit button next to any of your pinboards.

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Fashiony.

Today we released a new version of the pin and repin forms.

The first thing you’ll notice is that we’ve combined the title and caption fields into a single “description”. Lots of users told us that they didn’t need both of them. We thought a single field would make pinning a little bit faster. If you had titles before they won’t be lost! We’ll be combining your title and captions into a single description automatically over the next few days.

The second change is an improved tagging interface. You can now add multiple tags quickly by typing a tag and pushing enter or comma. This form will also let us support autocomplete in the future, an improvement that has been requested by quite a few of you!

We hope you like the improvements. Let us know if you have any other ideas for making the pinning process easier.

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Apartment Therapy.

A big problem on blogs is tracking down the original source of an image. Most blogging products weren’t designed with proper attribution in mind. Failing to give credit to original sources isn’t fair to the original artist or business that provided an image, nor is it good for readers who want to get more information.

On Pinterest, we try to make it easy to credit your sources. When you pin an image, we automatically grab and display the source link right on your pin. But what happens when you want to add a pin to your blog?

Yesterday we added a feature that makes it easy to blog about a pin while giving full credit to the original source and the person who pinned it. Push the green ’embed’ button to the left of a pin to get a snippet of code you can paste right into your blog. When you click the image you can visit the source (hover over the image to preview the source). The footnote gives kudos to the person who pinned the image.

We played with lots of different variations on how to give credit and we’re very open to suggestions to improve it! Even if you’re not using Pinterest, do everyone a favor and credit your sources :)

*Thanks to Laura Miner of Pictory for doing a nice write up of this problem on her blog.

—Stephanie Lim, Community Specialist, Currently obsessed with pinning to Sweets.