My Last 5 Pins: Helen Birch, Art Lecturer
Depending on who you follow, you can get an entirely different experience on Pinterest each day. Sometimes scrolling makes me feel like I’m in an art museum, other times, a dream-home. No matter what, I’m learning something new thanks to someone I’ve never met in person. Pretty cool. But one day, I decided I had to know more about the endlessly inspiring pins of “drawdrawdraw” and asked for some insight into how she uses Pinterest. The full story definitely didn’t disappoint and neither did the link to her own art blog.
Helen: I’m an Art Lecturer (specialising in BA honors Drawing) at Bradford School of Arts & Media, based in the north of England. This collection of images helps me do my job; it helps me to see others’ ideas and innovations within art & design; it means I can post my work & others’ work and have a direct link with students whenever I / they please.
My ‘taste’ is limited to 9 boards (so they fit on most computer screens at one go), and were initially put in place to share any drawing based research I found online. Other board categories were added because I couldn’t resist saving what I found here, and there, and everywhere.
Apart from drawing, my other main interest is photography - composition, the ordinary, the overlooked made note of. A selection from my boards:
1. Chicken in a bucket, 1944. The early drawings of Lucien Freud remain a favourite with me - slight distortion of form, sure and true line, great compositions.
2. Drawing top by Thomas Forsyth. Anyone can draw with the right kit. These wooden tops made by Tom Forsyth are a joy to play with - beautifully balanced, choreographed mark-makers.
3. In ordinary places. Walking around my drawing studio and an easel’s shadow makes its own drawing - grey on grey.
4. Found drawings. I found many of these chalk figures around Krakow, Poland. They felt like lost souls from past conflicts eerily present.
5. Monur opening by Monja Gentschow. The immediacy of saving others’ ideas on Pinterest is a continual source of research / inspiration. This image helped me make a final decision for my own exhibition in January 2011.
Interview with Jeanine Hayes: Creative Director of AphroChic
This week, I’m excited to introduce Jeanine Hayes, the founder and creative director ofAphroChic. Jeanine started her professional life as a lawyer before pursuing her passion for modern soulful design by founding the AphroChic blog in 2007 and launching her own line of decorative pillows in 2009. Since then, Jeanine’s pieces have been featured in Lucky Magazine, and she was an online guest judge for HGTV’s Design Star.
Interview with Göran Sandwall: Jewelry Artisan
In our last interview Mom, artist, and architect Amy Holms suggested that we get in touch with Göran Sandwall. In Amy’s own words, ”His pins are very much in line with the type of pieces I like, and like me he is a jewelry designer. His Wishlist board is lovely.”
Well Amy, I’m happy to say that Göran made your wish come true. You can see Göran’s pins here. Enjoy the interview!
Interview with Amy Holms: Architect & FormFire Glassworks
This week I got a chance to catch up with Amy Holms of FormFire Glassworks. Amy’s “Wood You” board is one of my personal favorites. It was fun to hear about the personal style that influences Amy’s architecture and glasswork. Enjoy!
Interview with Erin Dollar: I Made You a Beard
In our pinterview with Ed Winser, he made a special request to get in touch with Erin Dollar. In Ed’s words, Erin is one of “my favorite pinners, and she seems to be abreast of the beard fetish thing sweeping the nation. I want to know how often she goes out in her beards, and what she’s all about!”
After checking out Erin’s incredible pinboards and her equally spectacular Etsy Shop, I had to get in touch..
Interview with Aaron Albano aka Ming: Record Producer
I’m a bit of a stereo nut, so when I stumbled on an entire pinboard of ProfessionalStudio Equipment I had to get in touch with the curator, Aaron Albano. Aaron (aka Ming) was a software engineer before becoming a full time record producer in NYC. I hope you enjoy the pinterview.
Interview with Alexis & Lauren from Trim Interiors NYC
I was lucky enough to interview Alexis and Lauren, founders of Trim Interiors NYC (http://trimnyc.com). Trim Interiors helps regular people decorate their apartments. As a guy who has struggled to put together even the most modest studio, I love what Alexis and Lauren are doing. Plus Alexis and I both dream of owning a French Bulldog named Escobar. Oh, and naturally, the two have enviable taste. Follow their pinshere.
Tell me about yourselves. How did you meet?
(Alexis) We met at a large hospitality design firm in New York, which is where we both work now. Lauren’s an Interior Designer. She’s originally from Kansas. I’m an Architect and I grew up in Manhattan. We tend to tackle design issues from different angles. The work we do is usually very big (in terms of both personality and scope) and very glamorous. Lots of hotels, casinos, restaurants, museums, and retail projects - both domestic and international.
We get to live these sort of glittery lives during the day, and then we both go back to our tiny new york apartments at night, which present a completely different kind of design challenge. When I moved into my place in Brooklyn (which I rent) I replaced all the hardware in my kitchen with super minimalist brushed stainless pulls i found at Home Depot for a dollar apiece. It cost less than $20 and took less than 20 minutes, but it made a huge difference.
It seems like every other day someone I know asks me how I think they should arrange the furniture in their studio apartment, or if I can recommend an affordable couch. It’s actually kind of great, though - it gives me an excuse to spend 5 hours looking at furniture online (something I’d be doing anyway, just with less purpose). Lauren and I saw a business idea in that.
“By keeping things inexpensive ($100 - $1000) and informal, we can offer design advice to tons of people who would never consider hiring an interior designer or decorator, but want a little personalized direction.”
What’s your process like? How do you get to know a client’s style?
(Lauren) If the client is local, they have the option to meet with us in person, but otherwise everything is web-based. You submit measurements of the room(s) you want to work on (we provide a worksheet and a guide to make it as easy as possible). Then we ask you to complete an informal questionnaire. It gives us a sense of your style and also what issues you’re having with your space. We ask if you have pets, where you like to eat dinner, and what you favorite magazines are. It’s also really useful to see images that our clients are drawn to.
(Alexis) A few inspiration photos can tell us a lot about someone, and provide us with a way to communicate our ideas to them more directly. Pinterest can make that a lot easier! Many times, people are unsure of how to express their personal style, but they know what they like when they see it.
(Lauren) Once we get a sense of your aesthetic, we’ll spend hours shopping for everything you need, making sure it fits your style, your budget, and your apartment.
“I like to save images of everything for a client in one place, so Pinterest is a great way to organize by product category and by job. Sometimes a great lamp just isn’t so great with a particular sofa, so as we’re working we can really use the pinboards to see how everything is coming together. It’s perfect for the way we collaborate, too.”
Oh, and one of my FAVORITE features is that when I return to a pinboard, I can quickly click through to the original source and provide our client with all the necessary information to make a purchase. Before Pinterest, we were saving huge files on our computers, emailing them to collaborate, and eventually doing our best to retrace our steps back to the original source.
Any favorite pinboards you’d recommend to other people?
(Lauren) We’re best friends with ShiloByrd now. Pinterest brought us together. Is there anything you’d like to see us add to make Pinterest better?
(Alexis) I also love all of FormFire Glass boards.
(Lauren) Please let us filter by tags! If I could instantly see all the sofas I’ve ever pinned without putting them all on a dedicated pinboard, it would be fantastic.
(Alexis) Private “invite-only” pinboards would be useful as well when we want to use the site to communicate directly with our clients. It also would be nice to have some kind of drag-and-drop feature to move pins between boards when I feel like re-categorizing something or using it for more than one project.
Pinterview: Ed Winser
This week’s pinterview is with Ed Winser. I started following Ed’s pins a couple months ago, and I’ve always been impressed by his creativity. He has boards on a range of interests, from jazz to fashion to (my personal favorite) urban monasteries.
Interview with Janet & Trisha Snyder from Pawling Print Studio
For this week’s Pinterview, I got in touch with Janet and Trisha Snyder, the talented sisters behind Pawling Print Studio. In addition to creating beautiful products (I will be buying some pillowcases from them this week!) they are avid pinners. You can see their pinboards here. Enjoy!
Interview with Enid Hwang
Pinterest is special because of the great people who share their personal taste and style. We’ve been enjoyed meeting the folks behind some of our favorite pinboards so much that we thought it’d be fun to interview a few of them.
Our very first pinterview is with Enid who recently moved from LA to San Francisco. Enid runs social media marketing for Crossroads Trading Company, a recycled clothing company with stores in the Bay Area, LA, Portland and Chicago.
