Erik Herrström on the Pinterest trap

Designer Erik Herrström on why starting a project on Pinterest leads every designer to the same work, and the research his studio uses instead."If you start your project by going to those sites, you are gonna end up designing what all the other designers in the world are doing right now because it's fed to you by algorithms."In this bonus from his Creative Figures conversation, Erik answers what young designers should use instead of mood boards built on Pinterest, Savee, Are.na and other inspiration sites. Something can feel fresh on the morning you start, he explains, but most other designers are seeing the same thing at the same time. His studio starts with research instead: Reddit and YouTube to see how an audience talks and communicates, and sometimes Google Street View to understand a local area. That, he says, is often where the magic happens, and it makes more sense to clients than something that only looks shiny.Timestamps 00:00 Opening 00:13 What to use instead of mood boards 00:29 How algorithms make us design the sameIf you liked this episode, listen to the full conversation with Erik Herrström on Creative Figures.Erik HerrströmSTUDIO HERRSTRÖM: https://www.studioherrstrom.com/The Echo: https://the-echo-book.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herrstrom/Studio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studioherrstrom/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikherrstrom/Studio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studio-herrstrom/Creative FiguresWebsite https://creativefigures.fm YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeFiguresFMInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativefigures.fm/Hosted by Alen Kapetanovic.© Alen Kapetanovic. Madrid, Spain. All rights reserved. This work may not be used to train AI or for automated data mining purposes, including under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790.