# Pinterest identity

**Year:** 2010
**Role:** Identity design — direction, concept, wordmark, system. Carlos Pagan refined the final letterforms.
**Client:** Pinterest (Ben Silbermann)
**Tags:** brand
**Case study:** /work/pinterest-identity

In 2010, after meeting at a dinner, Ben Silbermann — founder of a fledgling startup — asked me to design Pinterest's logo. I developed the approach, concept, and visual direction, roughed out the wordmark and the pinned-*P* mark, and got Ben's approval on that direction. To refine the letterforms, I brought in one-of-a-kind [Carlos Pagan](https://carlospagan.com/portfolio/pinterest) — he dialed in the exact curves of the letters and the final *P* pin mark.

The wordmark's pin-like *P* remains the brand's stamp — and has been printed across literally tens of billions of physical objects.

![The Pinterest pin mark on a Pinterest-red field](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-pin-redfield.svg)

### Recognition

- *HOW Magazine* — Best Logotype (2011)
- *Type Directors Club* — Certificate of Typographic Excellence (2012)
- *Print Magazine* — Regional Design Annual (2012)
- Published as a case study in *Designing Brand Identity* (Alina Wheeler), 3rd–6th editions
- Referenced in Disney's *Wreck-It Ralph 2*

## Before and after

![Pinterest's original wordmark](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-logo-old.png)
![The redesigned Pinterest wordmark](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-wordmark.svg)

## The wordmark on Pinterest red

![The Pinterest script logotype on a Pinterest-red field](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-wordmark.svg)

## Pinterest board

The live page renders a sample Pinterest board, built in code from a grid of 25 board images and an avatar at `/work/pinterest-identity/board-mock/` and `/work/pinterest-identity/avatar.jpg`.

## Applied surfaces

![Pinterest business cards](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-applied-cards.png)
![Pinterest tote bag in use](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-applied-bag.png)
![Pinterest signage at headquarters](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-applied-hq.png)
![Pinterest banner at the New York Stock Exchange](/work/pinterest-identity/pinterest-applied-nyse.png)

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