In Memory of Susan Niebur
As a relatively young company, it’s amazing that we’ve already had the opportunity to interact with so many incredible people. For those of you who joined us earlier, you might remember Susan Niebur. We interviewed her about the Women in Planetary Science project she founded, increasing inflammatory breast cancer awareness, and the lymphedema sleeve project.
Susan Niebur passed away on February 6, 2012, of inflammatory breast cancer. While we didn’t know her personally, it was clear to anyone who read her blog that she inspired and advocated many causes and communities. Her peers from the Women of Planetary Science project are continuing Susan’s cause on Pinterest, so we wanted to take a moment to highlight their efforts:
Astronomer Erin Ryan is maintaining Susan’s “Women in Planetary Science” pinboard here.
We feel it’s a graceful gesture on top of a powerful message; check it out if you have a chance.
Interview with Crosby Noricks: Founder of PR Couture
There’s currently an avalanche of runway photos, trends, and street-style being pinned as the fashion industry makes its seasonal migration from New York to London and onwards to Milan and Paris. And as “fashion month” ensues, we decided it was the perfect time to interview the travel-happy, animal-loving, newborn-hiker Crosby Noricks, founder of PR Couture.
Her blog was one of the first to discuss fashion’s relationship with social media as it evolved, and now it’s a hub for industry news, interviews, tips, and articles on brand management, freelancing, internships and more. As expected, we got some expertise, suggestions, and of course a few stories about her boards!
Hi Crosby! First, can you tell us a little about yourself?
Like Elle Woods, I am a Gemini vegetarian. Unlike Elle Woods, I am a curly-haired brunette that prefers kittens, mini ponies and pygmy goats to tiny dogs. I was born in Santa Barbara, and I moved to San Diego for graduate school and have been here for the last seven years, which is longer than I have ever lived anywhere. It’s not a place I never thought I would end up, and luckily I am able to travel quite a bit, most often up to San Francisco, my favorite city in the world thus far. However, I have come to appreciate the gorgeous weather, preponderance of bougainvillea, proximity to the gorgeous Hotel del Coronado and beach, and the storybook-style one-bedroom yellow casita I currently call home.
In 2006, I started PR Couture, a blog that explores fashion PR, marketing and social media from an industry perspective. I currently work as the director of social media at Red Door Interactive, working with consumer brands on their digital strategy. Luckily, this sometimes means I get to play on Pinterest for work.
This year, I decided it was time to spend less time online and more time outside, and have enjoyed exploring that world. Much to everyone’s amusement, I now own shoes explicitly for hiking. I am currently fantasizing about having one of those fancy blenders that would allow me to make watermelon gazpacho in seconds, turning my favorite Instagram photos into canvas prints, and getups for an upcoming trip to Palm Springs.
There are a lot of fashion-lovers on Pinterest, but the fashion industry can be a little mysterious: can you give us some insight on what a fashion publicist does on a typical day?
A fashion publicist is primarily responsible for managing the relationship between her clients and the media, but what that means on a day-to-day basis might include everything from developing a strategic plan with key messages and seasonal strategies, to stuffing gift bags or keeping track of media and celebrity sample requests. A fashion publicist is always thinking of innovative ways to position not just her client’s products but the brand story itself and the various mediums in which that story can be told. As the lines continue to blur between traditional PR, marketing, social media, customer service, etc there are more opportunities than ever before to become involved in the overall business direction of a brand, as well as close engagement with today’s social customer.
In the past couple years, globally recognized labels are creating social campaigns left-and-right: any trends you think will happen as the fashion world gets better acquainted with the web?
“MOVE” Rachel Roy Spring 2011 from Dominique Palombo on Vimeo.
I think that they key to a successful social campaign is pairing the right content and message with the right opportunity for the consumer. In fashion, this is emerging with the influx of short fashion films, fashion bloggers or customers curating and creating content, and unique opportunities for the social consumer to experience the brand in new ways. I think the challenge for many fashion brands is still how to integrate social strategy with other digital strategies as well as offline activities – in-store, events, the products themselves…
You work at an internet presence management company; opinions on sites and networks must be on your mind a lot. So lay it on us: what do you like about Pinterest? What can we do better?
A few ideas
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When I’m not logged in, I see a variety of pins, but when I login they disappear. I’d like to better understand how to navigate back to this original view
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My biggest challenge is discovering new people to follow – a recommendation engine “People who like this person’s pins also like X” would be great, as would a search recommendation “we see you are searching for kittens, you may also want to search for cats, or pets.”
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When repinning something where the person has left a comment, it’s not clear that the comment is from that person, and not from me. I’d like a clearer distinction to indicate what comments are mine and what was there before. And what is the protocol on deleting/keeping other people’s comments?
And finally, what do you think someone can learn about you from Pinterest?
Crosby’s “For the Living Spaces” board
I think that Pinterest is a great way for people who might only know me through PR Couture to learn more about my personal aesthetic – whether it’s a gorgeous steel and wood modern farmhouse dining room table, a bright red canvas teepee, or a gold vintage clutch. It’s also a way to see what’s on my mind – my vacationing board came about when I was inspired and excited about an upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Thanks for the pinterview, Crosby! And, to answer your questions:
The page of pins anyone sees when they’re not logged into Pinterest is generated from the Everything section. If you find something there that you want to interact with, you can open the pin in a new browser window/tab and then log in. If you refresh the page with the pin you like, your browser will detect that you’re logged in so you can comment on it, repin it, etc.
And as for proper repinning conduct: you definitely don’t have to keep the original pinners’ descriptions. The original pinners are all linked automatically and given credit when you repin, as well as the original source-link.
Interview with Susan Niebur: Astrophysicist & Mom
Susan Niebur would probably tell you she’s a mom, then she would tell you she’s an astrophysicist. She’d tell you all about exemplary women in her field and what younger scientists in general can contribute to planetary missions.
If she wasn’t so involved in spreading the word about the symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer - the cancer that strikes without a lump - she might not even tell you she’s currently fighting metastatic breast cancer. Maybe you wouldn’t even know because she’s too busy mothering her boys, blogging at Toddler Planet, working, and - lucky for us - pinning.
So, we got to know Susan through her pins first, but that’s clearly only the tiniest fraction of her story. Here’s her full pinterview and we really hope you’ll take some time to get to know a pinner who’s inspiring by example.
Hi, Susan! First, can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a 38 year-old scientist currently at home with my little boys. Four years ago, I got inflammatory breast cancer, which changed my life forever. I’m now in no rush to go back to work fulltime, but I do a little work every day to keep my hand in the game and to make a contribution to my field as I can.
Speaking of contributions, between working at NASA Headquarters, helping create programs, and research: what have been some of your most rewarding professional moments?
Two weeks ago, I presented a poster at a meeting and took the opportunity to discuss increasing the involvement of a broader spectrum of people in planetary science mission leadership. The poster was full of facts and demographics making the case that more new young people need to be involved in NASA missions so that they can be prepared to lead missions years from now — not your typical science poster! I was nervous about how it would be received, but as the poster session opened, I was surrounded by suits (division directors and branch chiefs) and we were able to talk together about several ways that goal could be accomplished. It was really rewarding to hear some agreement — and interest in making changes to open up the field so that younger scientists could become more involved on NASA missions to other planets, comets, and asteroids. I believe that it’s critical for the future of our field.
Marie Curie is typically the only female scientist commonly talked about in grade school; can you tell us about your “Women in Planetary Science” board and what it means to you?
Agreed - I remember pinning up my hair and donning a lab coat to dress as Mme. Curie myself for a 7th grade presentation! The interesting thing about Curie is that she pioneered flexible work. She made her award-winning discoveries in her home office - a lab out back behind her house, and urban legend has it that she was known to cook dinner on a bunsen burner now and again!
42nd Annual Lunar & Planetary Science Conference: Women in Planetary Science breakfast
I started the “Women in Planetary Science Project” at a blog of the same name (http://womeninplanetaryscience.com), trying to raise the profile of women in planetary science who are often overlooked. Two graduate students and I conducted a series of 51 interviews with women working on space missions, observing planets through telescopes, running laboratories, teaching, and many other aspects of a scientist’s career today. But it wasn’t enough.
I wanted to be able to visualize the numbers, and to see how many women we could find working in the field - a field that is so diverse that we come from physics, geology, astronomy, and sometimes chemistry, biology, and other fields. We don’t even know how many men and women there are in the field! What we do see is meeting after meeting filled with older men, and it can get discouraging for someone who doesn’t look like everyone else. This way, we can all SEE other planetary science women — and that is powerful.
I love pinning to this board, and my community is involved now too, sending me names for pinning. I’d happily open up the board to the community (I love that that’s a feature!), but each person typically only has a few suggestions.
In addition to being a scientist, you’re a cancer survivor and mom. Can you tell us about your efforts to bring awareness to inflammatory breast cancer and supplying lymphedema sleeves?
Sure. When I got sick four years ago, I had no idea what it would be like. The only people I’d ever known with cancer were elderly (I suppose I had been lucky) and it just blew my mind that a 34 year old mom of a toddler and a newborn could have cancer living in her body and not even know it. It blew. my. mind. As I researched it (my mother-in-law was also fighting cancer), I shared details on my blog. I’d never even heard of inflammatory breast cancer (the cancer that strikes without a lump! - http://www.ibcresearch.org/symptoms/) and here it was trying to kill me!
I knew I had to talk about it, to share the warning signals so that other moms would not be taken unawares and to know what the possibilities are if they found a hot, red, itchy, or bumpy (like an orange peel) patch on or under their breast. IBC is very often misdiagnosed or dismissed in nursing moms as “just mastitis,” but the truth is, many of us were diagnosed while pregnant or nursing - and since moms often forget to take care of ourselves when we have young children, it’s important to know the warning signs that merit a call to the doctor.
The lymphedema sleeve project arose organically out of social media. A friend sent me a note one day offering help via an email that she’d gotten offering pampering services for breast cancer patients and survivors. ”Need anything?” she asked. Well, I didn’t, but I sure knew some people who did! My physical therapist and I had just been chatting about how much the compression sleeves that I wear were helping control the swelling in my arms after my double mastectomy and subsequent surgeries — and many of her other clients couldn’t afford them. Two phone calls to the company who made mine (LympheDIVAs.com) and Crickett’s Answer To Cancer, and there was a match made in heaven. LympheDIVAs donated $13,000 of their beautiful lymphedema sleeves and gloves, Crickett’s Answer agreed to do the paperwork, and a couple of shout-outs to my social media friends over Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and email, and the information was plastered all over the internet. I’m very proud of what we were able to do, making a big change for a lot of people just by using our social networks for good.
Finally, we talk a lot about inspirations on Pinterest and you’re a role model for finding beauty and joy in life no matter what happens - what are your top “little things that count”?
Thank you!
Children’s laughter. Soap bubbles on a summer afternoon. Reading books together in an easy chair. Family meals. Cuddling. Taking time for a night out with friends — even when there is other work to be done. Stargazing or watching the clouds pass by. Asking a child a question, and listening — really listening — to her answer.
We really enjoyed listening to your answers, Susan! Thank you again for pinning so much inspiration.
And if you’re reading and want to know more about women working in planetary sciences or how you can help provide lymphedema sleeves to those in need: do check out Women in Planetary Science or Susan’s personal blog Toddler Planet.
My Last 5 Pins: Matt Hanns Schroeter
Source: Deftones Diamond Eyes 2010 tour poster on Awesome & CMYK; pinned to Visual Methods.
My Last 5 Pins continues, making its way from Ghana to Canada! This week curiosity got the better of me when I was searching for some great tech-related boards. One pin led to another, and before I knew it I was pinning from typography blogs I’d never seen before. It’s a story a lot of pinners can relate to, but in this case, it was all thanks to the boards of Matt Schroeter. So, after managing to focus, I got the details on what and why he pins:
Matt: With a background in photography and graphic design, I apply the best of my talents towards designing interactive experiences. I’m always looking to improve the connections between systems, places, and people.
I’m currently in Vancouver, BC, working as a Creative Director with Qwick Media. Outside of that you can usually find me shooting photos around the city, or working on personal design projects.
Source: Jacquelyn Jablonski for H&M lookbook on The Pursuit Aesthetic; pinned to Common Threads
1. I often like to browse in creative fields different than my own to collect inspiration for looks and styles. In this case, it’s fashion. I pinned this photo because of the clever color matching seen in the outfit - the browns being accented just enough by a blue collared shirt.
Source: “Doy” woodcut by Roman Klonek; pinned to Visual Methods.
2. Roman Klonek has such a pretty amazing control of color and form in his illustration work. I tend to like the abstract side of things, especially when it has geometric forms.
Source: Real Business Magazine illustration by Scotty Reifsnyder; pinned to Visual Methods.
3. I first came across Scotty Reifsnyder’s work through Wired UK. There are so many illustrators that excel in editorial pieces, but somehow Scotty manages to fit in so much detail and information. It’s refreshing to see against overly simple pieces.
Source: Deftones Diamond Eyes 2010 tour poster on Awesome & CMYK; pinned to Visual Methods.
4. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of the Deftones, but I loved this poster instantly. It’s a great combination of high contrast, black and white photography with a touch of modern typography. It reminded me of one of my favorite graphic design pieces - Armin Hofmann’s poster for the Giselle ballet.
Source: “Sisyphus” mural by Interesni Kazki in Ekaterinburg, Russia; pinned to Spaces and Things.
5. A large part of my pinning goes into finding interesting uses of physical spaces. This wall piece was no exception, and has a lot of cultural connections if you take the time to look into all the things put into the giant mass of stuff. I love the instant ‘wow’ effect it has because of its sheer size, and the use of visual cues that invite you to look deeper.
Interview with Kate Petty: Mom & Crafter
Kate is new to pinning but her tutorial-laden craft blog, mini-eco, has been featured on sites around the world, from Craftzine to Swiss Miss. Now Kate is even writing for Homemade Living!
If you give her blog a click, you’ll instantly know why her talents are in high demand: mini-eco’s specialty is fun things to make with your kids using everyday things around your house.
So while she’s pinning cool kids’ stuff, inspiring eye candy, plus craft tutorials from other sources, what better time to get acquainted than with a pinterview?
Hi, Kate! First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a full-time mum to two lovely little boys. We have just recently returned to the UK after a seven year stint in Australia. Pre-kids I was a web designer and developer. I set up mini-eco 18 months ago in an attempt to document the things I make for (and with) my sons. Crafting keeps us all sane and running my blog gives my grey-matter a good work out. It’s also a wonderful way of connecting with other crafty folk around the globe.
Source: mini-eco, “Cardboard Instruments”
A lot of pinners love DIY projects and with mini-eco, you’re obviously no exception: has crafting been a life-long love?
Well I always loved making things as far back as I can remember. I studied Fine Art at college but when I left I ‘fell’ into web development and stopped creating things for a good ten years or so. Having kids, and breaking out of that corporate environment, reignited my crafty spark I think.
Source: mini-eco, “Geeky Weaves” tutorial
What’s been one of your favorite creations/projects?
My favorite projects are always the latest ones. I’ve been trying to make more adult orientated things of late which has made a lovely change. My macrame owl and woven Space Invaders have been a lot of fun.
Source: mini-eco tutorials
Many of your tutorials are kid-friendly activities: outside of these projects, what do you like keeping your boys occupied with?
They are typical boys and have a lot of energy. They love to swim, climb & walk so most days that’s what we do! They are very close in age and also love to fight with one another so I spend a large proportion of my day separating them. :)
Source: Kate’s pins
Since you started pinning relatively recently, we’d love to hear a fresh perspective on what we can do to make Pinterest better.
Hmmmm…an ‘advanced search’ function. That’s me being picky though…Pinterest is such a fine idea and I really can’t fault it. It’s super easy to use and the graphical user interface is great… beautifully clean, if you know what I mean. I’m a rather haphazard/forgetful person so it’s just lovely to be able to keep a ‘visual diary of inspiration’ so to speak, it makes me feel like I have a more organised life haha!
Source: mini-eco tutorials made from Spectrograph paper
Final question… are you sure your blog isn’t sponsored by Paperchase?
I wish :)
Thanks for taking your eyes off your boys for a sec, Kate - and happy pinning!
My Last 5 Pins: Alex Fox
Source: Adrien Sauvage; pinned to Clever.
Pins can teach you a lot about a person and their interests, but some of the most rewarding moments on Pinterest are when you come across a pinner who also manages to teach you a lot just by pinning things you never would’ve come across otherwise.
Alex Fox is one of those people whose boards and immediate pin-vocabulary is African fashion and moving photography - beautiful all on their own - but discovering more about why she pins was a definite treat, so here’s her story straight from Ghana:
My name is Alex, and I’m an fashion student from Newfoundland, Canada currently living in Ghana, West Africa. I’m here working for Engineers Without Borders and a start-up clothing company who’s goal is to promote African fashion designers in the international market. I believe that Africa is a place full of beauty, hope and amazing potential, and am trying to show this to rest of the world with help from my website PoiaDiZorra.com.
I’m an intrepid event and production manager, with a place in my heart for design and photography to boot. I yell a lot, tend to dance in the streets, and I have a passion for extraordinary positive change.
I’m always inspired by visuals and pin as many of them as possible, so I have over 3000 pins. Choosing my favourite 5 was a challenge! I hope you enjoy what you think I find “pinteresting”!
Source: African Stories; pinned to Clever.
1. I love simple visuals with unexpected twists - I think this is an effective way of challenging people’s perceptions and assumptions on things like development and Africa.
2. Ghanaian designer Adrien Sauvage has a new limited edition collection named Black Volta after a lake in Ghana, and I love the clever visuals in his campaign (pictured at top of post).
Source: Vlisco; pinned to African.
3. This is an amazing new collection from Vlisco, a textile company based mostly in West and Central Africa. This fantastic lookbook showcases the beauty in African prints and design, and raises the bar for the African fashion industry.
Source: Engineers Without Borders; pinned to Photography.
4. This is a page out of Engineers Without Borders Canada’s 2011 Calendar. It highlights the dreams, goals and motivations of Mr. Razak Tika from the Bawku West District of Ghana. I believe in positive images of Africa and its people - promoting the hope, possibility and potential that exists there.
Source: Leanne Lim-Walker; pinned to Photography.
5. I love images where you can connect strongly with the people in it, and I think that the moment captured in this image is so full of emotion and love that you can practically feel it jumping out at you.
Interview with Chloé Douglas: Designer
We just posted about how incredible pinners are and Chloé Douglas is absolutely no exception. She wrote us one of the nicest emails I’ve ever read and after replying with the big thank you it deserved, I followed her links to discover Chloé has a ridiculously gorgeous blog devoted to color and was one of the designers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. After that, a pinterview and a “Follow All” was inevitable and we hope you’ll read on to get some stories on designing Olympic medals and Chloé’s heroes.
Hi Chloé, can you tell us a little about yourself?
Thanks for asking! I’m a designer from Vancouver with a computer almost always surrounded by heaps of paper-cuttings. I love a fusion of technology and hand-crafted detail. Oh, and I also use far too many exclamation points in business correspondence. Most of all, I am madly in love with colour and have been for as long as I can remember. One of my first ever memories was seeing a paint swatch wall at the hardware store. It was true love at first sight! After years of covering my desktop with colour-focused images, I decided to make a blog devoted to the subject five months ago and thus ‘plenty of colour’ was born. Long story short, my desert island item would probably be a Pantone guide. I guarantee I would build the most colourful raft you’ve ever seen!
Vancouver 2010 Olympics images, courtesy of Chloé Douglas
You were a designer for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics - what was it like working on such an enormous project? Any good stories?
So many stories! Let’s go out for drinks? Honestly, working on the Olympics for over three years was a spectacular, all-encompassing experience. I was so lucky to be part of the small design team that created the icons of the Games – the torch, medals, mascots, uniforms, books, etc.
The ‘Look of the Games’ was our biggest project because it was the design system and essence for the entire event from hockey rinkboards to street banners to keychains to planes. An unbelievable opportunity to create the backdrop for historic moments as well as representing Vancouver/Canada to the world. I loved the huge range of projects I got to use our Look design on, from making handmade papercraft details like flowers for an official program to creating modern products like snowboards, merchandise and video games.
One of my lead projects and probably my biggest love was the medals’ design. Every single medal was a unique crop of an Aboriginal artwork by Corrine Hunt so all of the athletes were unique yet connected. Olympic medals are sacred so it was an honour to help create something that symbolizes decades of work and sacrifice by athletes. The project also gave me the chance to work side-by-side with Leo Obstbaum, the Vancouver 2010 design director and my mentor. Devastatingly, Leo passed away 6 months before the Games. I am forever thankful for our countless late nights spent testing thread colours so the ribbons would “glow,” perfecting each medal crop, pondering shades of bronze… It took a couple of years but no detail was missed and I’m really proud of the end result. I’m rambling but overall, designing for the Games was definitely an enormous project but luckily overflowing with inspiration, passion and richly talented people.
Your blog is pages upon pages of vibrant eye-candy: apart from Plenty of Colour, what are your major inspirations?
Ready for an infuriating answer? I’m inspired by absolutely everything! Really! I often find myself overwhelmed by inspiration which is probably why I don’t sleep much. Okay, to be more specific, I would say Vancouver is a huge inspiration to me as it is tremendously multicultural and is a unique fusion of urban life, ocean and mountains. Colour is the common thread that inspires me and I love finding beautiful palettes in unexpected places. It’s amazing the colours you can see in compost buckets and alleyways! Interior design, stainless steel, desk supplies, woodgrain, India, art deco, neon, vintage sequins, light fixtures, embroidered type, pattern, geometry, papercraft, paint swatch walls… I could truly go on for days and days. There is a reason Pinterest is the first site I visit in the morning and the last I visit at night!
Okay…what’s your favorite color? And you have to pick one!
Gulp. I can’t! That’s like picking a favourite child! I have a love for all hues but, twisting my arm, I would say I am most attracted to the brightest colours in the crayon box. I love fuchsia, turquoise, vibrant purple…
I love the section on your blog titled Colour Hero which features many artists; if you could invite 5 people to pin, who would you get in touch with and why?
I would love to see what artist and writer Douglas Coupland would pin. I think he is a genius and I would love to see what makes him tick. He has a wall of embroidery thread spools in his house for goodness sake!
Marc Webb has a fantastic eye for colour that is evident in all of his music videos as well as 500 Days of Summer. I am a huge fan of Kate Spade and their vibrant, colour-focused brand so I would definitely invite creative director Deborah Lloyd to pin. Another colour hero is Grace Coddington, creative director for Vogue magazine. Her gorgeous fashion editorials would probably translate into some jaw-dropping fashion boards. Kanye West is a true innovator and his old blog showed a real eye of colour and art. I can’t even imagine what he would pin!
Drinks are on us if Team Pinterest visits Vancouver: thanks so much for the stories, Chloé and looking forward to the colorful things you’ll pin!
Interview with Eric Kass: Commercial Artist
Meet Eric Kass. I was going to write about how interesting his vintage typeface and design boards are, but after being nominated for the 2011 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, there’s really nothing else I could add to make Eric sound like a guy you should follow. Just know that you’re missing out if you don’t, and here’s our pinterview with the hardworking, word-loving, commercial artist himself:
Hi Eric. First, can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a forty-year-old teenager one time farmer turned commercial artist.
You have some of the most niche boards I’ve seen on Pinterest (including Vintage Film Titles and Vintage Beer Labels), but what are some other things that inspire you?
(two of Eric’s pins)
So inspired by all of my patrons and friends, passions and insanities. The eleven thousand plus songs in the studio itunes library are perpetually on, coloring everything. Oh, and the friction that lives between contradictions.
Is there anything in particular about vintage typefaces and design you really love?
I love the original ingenuity of often naive individuals of days past working with limited technologies and resources designing to simply fill a need. Creating unique, imperfect designs gloriously weathered by the passing decades and changing cultural context becoming filled with sentimental triggers and romantic remnants.
How did you become interested in vintage typefaces and design?
(logos by Eric Kass)
Have always had a somewhat unnatural love of typography that first showed itself in grade school as I discovered different typestyles in the “H” ( under handwriting for some reason ) encyclopedia. I would write love notes to pass in class illustrating girls names in blackletter. They didn’t necessarily swoon over my lettering skills but it was certainly the beginning of my type fetish.
Does Pinterest figure into your work?
Absolutely, it’s a perfect place to share inspirations, observations and obsessions with patrons providing a peek into my style and perspective. I also have patrons who make boards for themselves providing extremely useful easily accessible insight as I develop their brand narratives.
Are the words on your site really random or did you pick them for a secret reason?
They are spontaneously snared and saved surfacing from subconscious depths. Flowing fragments of feelings and thoughts revealing hidden connections and insights into the events and relationships of my life. Editing is everything. That magic moment when our heads and/or hearts tell us what stays and what goes determining the direction of our work and lives. I believe our collections reveal us to ourselves, as well as, everyone else.
Thanks again for your time, Eric! Best of luck to you in commercial art, or rather: “snafu resolution / niche identification / essence distillation / gist enhancement.”
My Last 5 Pins: Maia
Maia pins a lot. With 21 boards and one of them devoted to “Super Talented and Swell People,” it was only a matter of time before I got around to asking her for the scoop on what she does and why she pins. Once again, the insight (and the links!) were a great reward. So congrats on your engagement Maia and thanks again for sharing!
Maia McDonald. By day I work as a graphic designer for Shopbop.com in Madison, WI; by night you can usually find me working on content for my design and lifestyle blog, Conundrum. I started blogging as a way to organize the deluge of inspiration I would find while browsing the internet, but it also turned out to be a great creative outlet for me away from work. I could focus on other things I’m interested in, such as cooking, fashion, architecture, illustration, etc.
Pinterest provides a similar outlet, which is why I quickly became obsessed with it. Now I have over 5,000 pins. So when it came to picking 5 of my recent favorites, it took some serious winnowing.
1. Poppies & Posies bouquets on Design*Sponge. I recently got engaged. Pinterest has been the perfect source for compiling all of my visual cues for the big day. This floral bouquet image in particular really sums up the visual story I’m hoping to create for my wedding: fun, bright, quirky, casual, and just plain gorgeous.
2. Cooking is definitely in my top 5 favorite things to do, and eating is probably number 1. I would be remiss not to pick a pin from my food board. This image from one of my all time favorite blogs, “What Katie Ate,” looks so scrumptious it’s almost painful.
3. I love the work of artist Sofie Arnold, and not just because she’s one of my dearest friends from childhood. Her imaginative style is beautifully restrained and full of intricate and quirky details.
4. Cover design by Javier Arce. I absolutely fell in love with this image the moment I saw it, probably because it appeals to my inner nerd sensibilities.
5. This stunning photo by Marcus Ohlsson reminds me of The English Patient and journeys to far-off lands.
My Last 5 Pins: Agustina
Quirky? Whimsical? I don’t know what to call it, but she has a board devoted to masks.
Agustina’s pins can be hard to describe just right, but chances are you’ve never seen most of them before. So rather than try to explain her pins myself and do a huge injustice to the images and information behind each one, I asked Agustina for the full story and to tell us about herself in the process:
My name is Agustina, I am an Argentinian graphic designer living in Germany. I have a blog, Selva, which is as a sort of inspirational journal about art and design (especially related to textiles). Blogging and pinning, apart from showing what I’m interested in, helps me organize ideas, and then convert those ideas into a new final work.
Now, with “My Last 5 Pins” I think this is a nice way you’ll know me better. Enjoy!
1. I love the beautiful and dream-like work of Ana Laura Pérez, her drawings are expressive and very feminine. I have a Pesqueira’s T-Shirt with one of her patterns, they are amazing.
2. Gunta Stölzl was the only woman among the masters at the Bauhaus, and played a fundamental role in the development of the school’s weaving workshop. She has many interesting works, but this is the piece that I like the most.
3. I’m obsessed with desert landscapes. Those earthy textures and colors drive me crazy. This photo was taken in Brennisteinsalda, a volcano in the south of Iceland. Photo by Martin Ystenes.
4. I get really surprised by the textile designer Marit Fujiwara. She has created a collection of dresses that look like watercolor paintings using marbling, embroidery and pleating. Just wonderful!
5. Australia is the new black. And Karla Spetic is part of the current creators of the new Australian fashion. The shapes and colors she uses each season are simply gorgeous. This skirt is an example of how cute are maxi prints.
