Pinterest acqui-hires the founder of design app Curator

Daniel Nordh will be a lead product designer, helping Pinterest build its international presence

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Pinterest currently has its eye on design. The company announced a major redesign to its app earlier this week​, which made it more user friendly with a new look, faster loading, and more languages. It's not done yet, though, and now its starting to build out the team that's going to continue to make the app look even better in the future. 

Its latest addition is Daniel Nordh, the founder of design app Curator, who is coming over in an acqui-hire, the company has confirmed to VatorNews. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

The London-based Curator was founded in 2012 as a mobile presentation tool for both everyday users as well as creative professionals. Its mobile interface makes it easy for people to bring together images, text, and other content from a variety of sources.

Pinterest has no plans to integrate any of Curator's technology; the app will continue to run but will not receive any significant updates going forward. 

Nordh was the founder of the company, with one other employee, but he will the only one joining Pinterest, where he will lead product design for core features like saving and retrieving content.

Prior to Curator, he was an architect who worked for the Mayor of London. He was also the editor of the first architecture and urban design policy for the City of Stockholm, Sweden, and was a record label manager launching the career of Little Dragon amongst others.

“I love building tools that help people be more creative in their life, and felt instantly aligned with Evan and Pinterest’s vision to help people discover and do what they love. I’m looking forward to working with the amazing team," Nordh said in a statement provided to VatorNews.

“Building the world’s catalog of ideas for every interest requires deep empathy with people all around the world. Daniel is a talented designer with a rich background in architecture, graphic design, music and technology," Evan Sharp, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Pinterest, said.

"His experience building an app that makes it easy for people to save and present visual content makes him a great addition to our highly diverse design team."

This acquisition is not only about helping build up the design, but also establishing a strong international presence. Part of Nordh's job will be "helping the team make Pinterest even more valuable for Pinners around the world," a Pinterest spokesperson explained. 

" As we grow to more countries around the world, it’s important our team reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our Pinners."

Currently, nearly half the design team comes from outside the United States, from countries that include Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and U.K. Some of the other lead designers in Swedes Andreas Helin of BVD and Sara Strand of 25ah, as well as Tim Belonax of Facebook & Airbnb, Katie Barcelona of Pentagram, and Byron Parr of Flipboard.

This marks the company’s second international deal for Pinterest, following the acquisition of project organization tool Icebergs in 2014. This its tenth acquisition overall, and its first of this year. It lastbought community-driven shopping app The Hunt, and Pext, a service that turns text messages into memes, in December. 

(Image source: curator.co)