pinterest-pin-design
A design-craft skill — design the pin's concept + composition + overlay, produce the brief, and plan
the fresh-pin variants. The agent designs + briefs + critiques; a human or image tool makes the
raster; WoopSocial publishes the finished pin (image + title + description + board + link).
The POV: a search result, not a post — designed to be found, saved, and clicked
A pin is a search result in a two-column mobile feed, competing at roughly half a phone screen wide
(~236px in the desktop grid). Its job is the save and the outbound click, and it keeps doing that job for
months (~4-month lifespan) — so a pin is an asset, not a post. Two rules anchor everything: the
visual and the keyword are one unit (this skill owns the visual; pinterest-seo owns the keyword — the
keyword goes in the overlay AND the title), and fresh beats frequent reposting — a "fresh pin" is a
new image/layout/overlay for the same URL, not a repin, and fresh designs drive ~90% of Pinterest
website traffic. Design mobile-first at feed size, always in 2:3 (1000×1500) — other ratios are
penalized.
Read these first
- brand-profile — palette/fonts/style (pins are a brand surface that must stay recognizable).
- the destination — the page the pin links to (the visual must promise what the page delivers).
- the keyword — from pinterest-seo (it goes in the overlay and the title).
The framework: SAVED
(Depth:
references/the-saved-framework.md
.)
- S — Stop the scroll on a 2:3 canvas: 1000×1500, 2:3 mandatory (other ratios penalized/cropped); one
focal point; vertical composition; lifestyle/in-context imagery beats sterile product-on-white; parseable
at feed size.
- A — Anchor the keyword overlay: the pinterest-seo keyword rendered large on the image (Pinterest
OCR-reads it); ≤~6 words, bold, high contrast, readable at ~236px; top-third or center; not a caption
duplicate.
- V — Visual brand system: a pin template family (from design-and-templates) — consistent fonts/
palette/layout; subtle logo/URL, never bottom-right (Pinterest's own icons overlay that corner).
- E — Every URL gets fresh variants: 3–5 visually distinct designs per destination (different image
- layout + overlay angle — not a color swap); each is a new chance to rank.
- D — Decide the format + hand off: static pin = the traffic workhorse (has the link); video pin (9:16,
6–15s) = engagement; multi-slide/idea-style = awareness (historically no outbound link); board covers set
the shelf aesthetic; brief → image tool → WoopSocial publishes.
The reality (verify-quarterly)
Feed-size mobile-first (two-column feed, ~236px, ~85% mobile); 2:3 1000×1500 mandatory (other ratios
penalized, tall pins truncated); overlay text OCR-read (keyword on the image); lifestyle/in-context imagery;
faces optional (product/idea is usually the hero — unlike YouTube thumbnails); safe zones (margins, logo not
bottom-right, nothing critical in the bottom of extra-tall pins); fresh-pin economics (~90% of traffic,
3–5 distinct designs/URL, few-day test window); video 9:16 6–15s; idea pins folding into the unified format;
brand consistency without clone-stamping:
references/pin-design-2026-reality.md
. The pin brief template,
design checklist, spec block, fresh-variant plan + worked examples:
references/design-and-variant-recipes.md
.
Honest scope (never violate)
- The agent designs the concept/composition/overlay text, writes the brief, plans the fresh
variants, and can critique a mockup — but a HUMAN or an image/design tool ( for
in-image text / / / a designer) creates the final raster.
- WoopSocial publishes the finished pin — image + title + description + board () +
link — it does NOT design, render, or generate the visual, and analytics are native Pinterest
Analytics, not WoopSocial.
- No misleading pins — the visual must promise what the page delivers (Pin → Board → Page must
match; long clicks rank you, bounces punish you). No repin-as-fresh dupes (a color swap is not a
fresh pin). Disclose AI imagery (Pinterest lets users filter GenAI). Never fabricate saves/clicks/
impressions. (Scope, distinctions + connections:
references/scope-and-connections.md
Distinct from its siblings (route correctly)
pinterest-pin-design (this) = the pin's VISUAL craft + brief + fresh-variant plan · pinterest-seo =
the keyword/search-RANKING layer (they PAIR — the keyword goes in the overlay AND the title) ·
pinterest-growth = the account strategy/cadence (boards, 72h same-URL spacing, seasonal timing) ·
design-and-templates = the brand template SYSTEM (the pin template is one asset in it) · ideogram/
canva/nano-banana = render the raster this briefs · thumbnail-design = the same craft for YouTube's
16:9 click decision (different job: click-to-watch vs save-and-click-out).
Where this connects
Reads first: brand-profile + the destination + the keyword from pinterest-seo. Pairs with:
pinterest-seo (keyword in the overlay + title), image-prompt → ideogram (in-image overlay text)/
nano-banana/flux (backgrounds), canva (template production), ai-image-editing (crops/cleanup),
design-and-templates (the pin template in the brand system). Routes to/from: pinterest-growth
(strategy/cadence), content-recycling (which URLs deserve fresh variants), seasonal-and-moment-marketing
(45–90-day seasonal lead). Publishes via: scheduling-and-queue → WoopSocial (image + title + description
- board + link) + platform-specs-and-validation. Measures with: native Pinterest Analytics +
analytics-and-reporting (saves, outbound clicks, impressions). The raster stays with the image tools/
designer; the words stay with pinterest-seo.
Definition of done
A 2:3 (1000×1500) vertical concept with one focal point in lifestyle/in-context imagery, parseable at feed
size; the pinterest-seo keyword rendered as a bold, high-contrast overlay (≤~6 words, OCR-readable, no
caption duplicate); brand-consistent template (fonts/palette/layout) with the logo out of the bottom-right;
safe margins and nothing critical lost to tall-pin truncation; 3–5 visually distinct fresh designs planned
per destination URL (new image + layout + overlay angle, never a repin/color swap); the right format chosen
(static for traffic, video 9:16 6–15s for engagement, multi-slide for awareness) and board covers consistent;
the raster briefed to an image tool/designer and the finished pin published via WoopSocial (image + title +
description + board + link); the visual honest to the destination; AI imagery disclosed; no fabricated
engagement; correctly paired with pinterest-seo and distinguished from pinterest-growth, design-and-templates,
and the image tools.