13. Just Think Pinterest

When you're precious time is not being consumed by Facebook or Twitter, it's a very likely possibility that that it is being spent on Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. I like pinterest because its an idea goldmine. I consider myself a very visual and organized person, so Pinterest is great because it's full of interesting and inspiring visuals that I can "collect" in my own personal way, and then organize however I choose.
Now if you're familiar with pinterest, you're probably familiar with their logo; and that's where the point of this blog post comes in. Continuing on my journey to investigate the world's most creative minds, i stumbled upon Juan Carlos Pagan, the Pinterest logo designer now making waves at DDB New York.
Like myself, Juan considers himself a typeface geek. After reading about his journey to where he is now, I think its safe to attribute a majority of his achievements to his sincere love for typography. It gave him a reason to think of the world as a canvas of inspiration and ideas waiting to be found. DDB provided him with just the opportunity he needed to combine his love of typography with his motivation and the freedom to take risks. The outcome was simply brilliant.


The AHA Moment
My Creative Strategist professor, Deb Morisson, often tells us that "only 10% of the advertising we see today is brilliant. The rest is all crap". I was shocked to see that this concept was confirmed by Juan when asked about his thoughts on the state of design in advertising. He responded,
"The truth is I think a lot of things lie within mediocre. It's like a microcosm for society and people - 10% are exceptional, there's 80% in the middle, and then 10% that's horrible. Design, in terms of advertising, a lot of it you're seeing is in that 80%. You're seeing it, but you're not really seeing it. You're not really engaged. I think we're striving here to do the top 10%."
This is EXACTLY what Deb has been explaining to us all along! And there it is, confirmed by an accomplished designer who lives and works among the reality of this concept. I love making these kind of connections between the important things I have learned. It reinforces all the great knowledge and wisdom that is worth absorbing and passing on.