The best agency creative Pinterest accounts

Will Hall, executive creative director, Rain
Hall’s Pins range from the deeply ironic (a “fifty shades of gray” board with different tones of the color) to the downright bizarre — a board comprising art made from hair. He says he uses Pinterest as a creative outlet beyond his work, posting images of everything from homemade tanks, dinosaur erotica and makeshift bras for his 4,600 plus followers. 

“Anything you do from a creative perspective shouldn’t necessarily be right, it should be remarkable,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to do here.”

Rebecca Ussai, senior experience designer, R/GA Chicago
Ussai stumbled upon Pinterest back in 2011, while she was still an intern at Anthropologie, helping the brand create store installations. Since then, she has stuck to the visual platform for both work and her other side projects, gathering over 1,000 followers along the way.

“Pinterest helps to classify inspiration in a way that’s easy to digest,” she said. “Over time, you can really curate your feed of pins depending on who you follow and what you pin — I like how over time my feed has become so much more relevant and interesting.”

Richard LaRue, senior art director, Leo Burnett Chicago/Arc
LaRue is a veteran pinner: He’s been using Pinterest since its beta stage in 2010 — his bio reads “designing by day, pinning by night” — and has amassed a whopping 668,000 followers. He started pinning with print design, but his boards grew over time to encompass all his interests, including architecture, motorcycles, cooking and photography. His favorite is still his first board, “Design Thinking,” which has over 6,000 pins itself.

“It’s an open resource,” he said of the platform’s virtues. “There’s very little limitation on what you can collect on it, and you can break down and organize your pins as much as you want.

Jen Lu, art director, Droga5
Lu has been pinning for over four years, touching everything from landscapes to textiles and new media. She uses it as somewhat of an organizational tool, saying that Pinterest helped her clear out her messy desktop, helping her easily find references for projects at work and outside of work. Her favorite board is her “New Media” board, because it is made up of pins that don’t fall under a traditional category.

“Most of them are art made from code and art from hacking something together with traditional tools,” she said. “I love breaking and putting things back together and seeing what the outcome will be.”

Margaret DeWees, senior account planner, McKinney
DeWees’ life seems like it’s right out of Katherine Heigl’s movie “27 Dresses” — only it’s unfolding on Pinterest instead of the big screen. She has been in 17 weddings — 11 in the year 2014 alone — so she started a blog about being a serial bridesmaid without breaking the bank. Pinterest was a natural extension of that, and the rest is history. Her Pinterest is crammed with wedding dresses, wedding rings and fancy hairdos.

“I would definitely classify myself as a the type of planner who is drawn to the female experience,” she said. Good thing, since that’s what seems to work on the platform anyway.

Christine Call and Clemente Bornacelli, creative directors, Omelet
This creative couple uses Pinterest for both work and play — especially Call, who thinks it appeals to her because “my personal and work life intersect all the time.” For Bornacelli, Pinterest usually serves to further some kind of a mission, a creative resource and a place to share stuff. Since having a baby last year, they’ve started using the platform for a lot more home inspiration.

“I recently scoured Pinterest for ways to declutter my life since having a baby last year and I started a ‘Capsule Wardrobe,’” said Call. “It is basically 20-ish pieces of seasonal clothing you can mix and match instead of keeping a closet full of clothes year-round — and it’s kind of changed my life.”

Sasha Blejec, associate creative director, Deutsch
Blejec is one of those self-confessed artsy creatives who built their portfolio on Pinterest “because in 2010, it was the cool, edgy thing to do.” She continues to use it both for personal and professional inspiration but finds the platform the most useful to keep herself abreast of different trends.

“I definitely rely on it for research too, as much as I do on Google,” she said.