29 Jan Beyond Pinterest: Get Creative with Your Photos

If you go on Pinterest and look up “ways to use photos,” you will see a slew of DIY pins. Ideas range from crafts using Mod Podge, to transferring images to rocks, to mounting Instagram photos to wood pallets. These ideas are usually easy and creative (and cheap) for most average consumers to try.

But what about businesses?

Most companies can’t use a Pinterest solution and expect to look professional. So, what can you do? How can you liven up your offices, thank you gifts, whatever?

We have a few ideas:

Unique Framing

Take your marketing photos, group portraits, and product shots and put them on display around your office. Some of these photos can look like fine art with a creative crop or filter. You can custom frame them to look very chic or print them on canvas and mount them for an artsy look. One our clients took one of their products (a sugar bag) and had it stretched to look like a canvas print. There are clever ways to take standard “photo ready” frames and have a custom framer “fit” them out for a classy custom finished looked. Easy peasy. Classy and custom on a ready made budget.

Custom Cards

You can also take those same marketing, group, and product shots and print them on heavy weight custom fine art cards. We printed a custom holiday card for our clients this year. It was a unique size and featured a limited edition fine art photo. You can insert one of your photos with a caption to give a personalized feel for the holidays, thank you cards, etc. It’s a combination of the quality of the card, the printing, and of course, the image, that conveys a deeper message and pops you out of the Pinterest stereotype.

Legacy Wall

Show off your history. Think of Andy Nelson’s. When you walk in, all you see are Colt’s memorabilia and newspaper articles about the business. TBI has a lobby and boardroom full of framed newspaper articles, donors and recipients, and historical images. The MTA lined their walls with prints on metal for their past directors and box mounted a few marketing images for their offices. If a picture is worth a thousand words, just a few minutes in these businesses blasts the viewer with their message.

Fine Art Prints

We like to send thank you gifts to people who refer clients. Recently, we have been sending fine art prints. Loyola Blakefield commissioned a fine art print of the school’s St. Ignatius Loyola statue as a thank you to alumni donors. You could mat or frame one of your photos or have a piece commissioned to give as a gift to clients, sponsors, or anyone else you want to thank.

There are plenty of other options out there for tchotchke gifts and art display. Some of them are pretty neat. Some are less than ideal. Think about what works for you and how you can get creative with your art. Pinterest is great for the home based hobbyist. But if you want your business to be perceived above a hobby think of ways to set it a step up.

We just don’t want to see you on one of those Pinterest fail sites. We like you too much.