1. To download private Pinterest boards I used the Pin Kit extension for Chrome
There may be more relevant platforms or approaches, I haven’t looked into this deeply.
2. The sorting process
Because:
- I’m very demanding when it comes to art direction – when sorting, it’s important to me to identify as many aspects as possible that a reference can help me with
- I’m interested in a wide range of fields: photography, layouts, design from furniture to jewelry, etc.
I know I’ll eventually end up with 100+ tags.
But trying to hold all of them in mind while analyzing every single file makes me want to stop immediately.
To avoid that, I use this strategy:
Step 1. I outline the broadest categories across my files and create folders for them. In my case: photo, clothing, website, jewelry, etc.
If I only cared about one area – let’s say, photography for fashion brands – I’d split it into: catalog, creative direction, color, still life, poses, etc.
Step 2. I pick a folder and create up to ~7 of the most obvious tags for that category of refs.
Example. Folder “website” tags: my favorites, catalog, cart, product page, account page, homepage, long-read, case study.
Step 3. I indicate what I did in a note: the folder name and which tags I reviewed it under.
This is to avoid chaos – because if I lose track, the only way back is to start reviewing the folder/s all over again.
Step 4. Depending on my mood, I either move on to sort another folder the same way, or go deeper within the current one – again indicating what I did and which tags I created.
Step 5. If ~7 top-level tags weren’t enough in a step 2, I add another ~7 tags and repeat as many passes as needed.
Example. Top-level tags for “photo” can be organized into:
- art direction: composition, color, poses, location
- genre: commercial, abstract
- patterns that shows up in my own style
- the feeling the file gives me: dissociation, calm, balance, system, etc.
There may be more relevant platforms or approaches, I haven’t looked into this deeply.
2. The sorting process
Because:
- I’m very demanding when it comes to art direction – when sorting, it’s important to me to identify as many aspects as possible that a reference can help me with
- I’m interested in a wide range of fields: photography, layouts, design from furniture to jewelry, etc.
I know I’ll eventually end up with 100+ tags.
But trying to hold all of them in mind while analyzing every single file makes me want to stop immediately.
To avoid that, I use this strategy:
Step 1. I outline the broadest categories across my files and create folders for them. In my case: photo, clothing, website, jewelry, etc.
If I only cared about one area – let’s say, photography for fashion brands – I’d split it into: catalog, creative direction, color, still life, poses, etc.
Step 2. I pick a folder and create up to ~7 of the most obvious tags for that category of refs.
Example. Folder “website” tags: my favorites, catalog, cart, product page, account page, homepage, long-read, case study.
Step 3. I indicate what I did in a note: the folder name and which tags I reviewed it under.
This is to avoid chaos – because if I lose track, the only way back is to start reviewing the folder/s all over again.
Step 4. Depending on my mood, I either move on to sort another folder the same way, or go deeper within the current one – again indicating what I did and which tags I created.
Step 5. If ~7 top-level tags weren’t enough in a step 2, I add another ~7 tags and repeat as many passes as needed.
Example. Top-level tags for “photo” can be organized into:
- art direction: composition, color, poses, location
- genre: commercial, abstract
- patterns that shows up in my own style
- the feeling the file gives me: dissociation, calm, balance, system, etc.
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AI does not know what specifically you liked about a file. So what you get is not a reference library – it’s just a database. In other words, the tags will not describe your preferences – which is the point of tagging.
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