Creative types looking for software to help seed and spark inspiration don’t usually have to look too far. There are a fair few options to play with — whether it’s a mainstream visual sharing platform like Pinterest or a design-focused moodboard-maker like Niice. But just as writers have a variety of workspace preferences, the needs of visual creatives are hardly uniform. So the Australian startup behind Milanote reckons there’s room for another approach here.
Milanote’s platform feels part Evernote, part Pinterest — indeed, it describes itself as an “Evernote for creatives” — given it’s offering users digital spaces (“boards”) paired with a drag and drop interface that can be used to add and position photos and notes to create visual moodboards or display a grouping of ideas. Its boards are also designed for storing (and/or linking) to related assets — nesting assets within new boards acting like folders.
Boards can also be shared so groups can collaborate and view updates across a project. And Milanote includes a to-do list feature. So, all in all, the platform feels like more of a multipurpose tool than purely a place for designers to play with visuals (though of course you can do that too). But you could also use it to organize and keep on top of research, say, or to create a more visual checklist or chronicle of an event.
The platform actually started as an internal tool for the founders’ other business (a UX agency) but they decided to spin it out — launching Milanote in February, and garnering some 35,000 users thus far, according to CEO Ollie Campbell. At this point he says the tool is being used by “designers, writers, marketers and other creative professionals” — working at companies such as Facebook, Apple,…