Pinterest has over 150 million active monthly users. With this many individuals pinning inspiration every day, trends come and go. One of the most popular, and enduring trends are colour boards. This is where pinners collect pins of the same colour, creating monotoned boards of various objects.
Colour Boards
There is something very pleasing about scrolling through a colour matched board. The Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception explains why we like to do this:
Humans like to organise visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.
In fact, studies have shown that a group of similar colours are deemed harmonious and pleasant while contrasting colours are associated with chaos or boldness.
Social media is often linked to stress, anxiety, and feelings of self-consciousness as people compare their lives to the ones they see on screen.
However, for a number of people social media is also a leisure activity. It is enjoyable to swipe through a feed of visually stimulating images. Instead of flicking through magazines, we can now scroll through Pinterest for a sense of personal style and aesthetics. Viewing groups of similar colours and products produces a feeling of harmony we may not be able to access in our everyday lives. Our kitchens and bookcases may never be as neatly organised as a Pinterest pin but seeing that this order does exist somewhere in the world is gratifying.
Texture Boards
A new tiny trend, similar to colour boards, is emerging on Pinterest. Texture boards delight the same sensory centre in the brain as colour, with the addition of a visceral desire to touch the image.
This tiny trend is great news for make up brands, interior design brands, in fact, any company that has a product that displays texture.
Beautifully painted interiors are common on Pinterest now and palette boards, although an interesting way of combining lifestyle visuals with products have been around since 2012.
Textures are a whole new terrain, one with many options to explore. Wet textures, dry textures, smudged textures, they lend themselves to various products in various states. The possibilities are endless!
Pinterest has always been about more than product shots, it is about image appreciation which (to a certain extent) means pins are art! People save images that inspire them and provide them with visual delight. Textures are an easy way to start creating art-worthy pins that feature your product.
Instagram Update
Instagram has just announced a Pinterest inspired update, they will now allow users to save images into ‘collections.’
Although the ‘collections’ will remain private, like a secret board on Pinterest, it’s interesting to see that Instagram are also tapping into people’s desire to save and organise visual inspiration. It’s a compelling reason to up your Pinterest game now, so when Instagram collections become popular, you have curation-worthy content ready to share.
Try creating a texture board on Pinterest for products you would traditionally have displayed in their packaging.
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