This week, our class had the opportunity to explore a social media site that we have little to no experience with. For the purpose of this assignment, I joined Pinterest because I have heard women rave about it and reference it frequently. The concept of the site is simple, create inspiration boards filled with pictures ranging in topic. I fell in love with the site almost instantly, as it was very user friendly and a mindless way to pass the time. It reminded me a lot of blogging in the sense that you can either upload your own content or re-post another user’s image—the site thrives of off reblogged or “repined” image sharing.
The main features of the site include board creation, pinning, liking, and sending. You can also link up your account to Facebook and connect with your friends to see their boards. One of my favorite elements of the site is that you can research a pin to find the website that it originated from, which comes in handy when you repin clothing that you want to buy or food that you want the recipe for. A concern about the site is that it sparks less engagement between users when compared with other social media sites. Users are able to comment and like other users’ pins, but they rarely partake in this method of direct contact. Despite this detachment, I really enjoyed the site and found it to be a great source of inspiration.
This type of inspiration has been instrumental this week as our class dabbled in the basics of InDesign. InDesign is Adobe software publishing software that we used to create a book cover, 2-page book spread, and magazine cover. I was very daunted by this program at first, but now am in love with it! There are so many features and design elements that you can use to create something original, and it is not extremely difficult to use. There are some aspects that are challenging, but it is easy to get the results you want with the trail-error method and practice. I am slightly biased at the moment though because I won our in-class contest and my book cover design will be featured on our class book; I never win creative contests and have minimal technological experience, so this was a big moment for me—Thank you InDesign!
Regardless of my recent triumph, I still think the site is a great tool for creating any sort of publication and will be using it in the adult world. Here are a couple links to get you started so that you can win design competitions too!
Image: http://theodysseyonline.com/lafayette/just-love-pinterest/312838
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