How ForwardNotionDesigns pins every new mockup to the right board
ForwardNotionDesigns
ForwardNotionDesigns opened on Etsy in 2026 and already has more than 2,400 listings, most of them apparel mockups sorted by the exact blank shirt or hoodie each one shows. The shop uses Alura's Pin New Listings with Smart Board, so every new release goes to the Pinterest board that matches its shop section.
Mockups named after the blank they show
ForwardNotionDesigns sells mockups to people who sell shirts. A print-on-demand seller drops their design onto an image of a blank tee, sweatshirt or cap and uses the result as a listing photo, without a photoshoot. Each mockup is a high-resolution, watermark-free PNG that works in Canva, Photoshop, Procreate and other editors.
The catalog is organized around the garment, down to the style number and color: a Black Comfort Colors 1717 tee on a model, a Sand Gildan 18500 hoodie in a snowy ski scene, a Bella+Canvas 1010 baby tee in Cocoa Brown. Singles sit next to bundles, editable size guides and color charts, and a whole shop bundle that includes every future mockup. Many new designs start as customer requests for a niche, a season or a trend.
Thousands of listings, and every one belongs somewhere
Mockup buyers shop by blank. A seller whose print partner stocks the Comfort Colors 1717 needs a photo of exactly that shirt, in exactly the color they offer, or the listing shows something the customer won't receive. So most titles here start with the color, the brand and the style number, in that order.
Pinterest suits a product like this. Designers save visual ideas there, and a mockup is an image by definition. But a catalog of thousands of listings, with new colors and scenes still arriving, is far too much to pin by hand. Each pin also has to land on the right board. Someone browsing Gildan hoodies has no use for a hat mockup, however good it looks.
“Nobody buying mockups wants a t-shirt. They want a Comfort Colors 1717 in Chambray, because that's the shirt their printer stocks.”
Shop sections became Pinterest boards
The shop's Etsy sections already followed the brands: Comfort Colors Mockups, Gildan Mockups, Bella Canvas Mockups, Port & Company Mockups, Hat & Bag Mockups, Size & Color Charts, plus a set of bundle sections split by brand. The shop keeps a matching set of Pinterest boards, and its Alura automation is set to Smart Board.
Smart Board maps each Etsy shop section to a Pinterest board, with a fallback board for anything that doesn't match. Comfort Colors Mockups goes to the board "Mockups - Comfort Colors". Hat & Bag Mockups goes to "Mockups - Hats & Bags". Size & Color Charts goes to "Size Guides & Color Charts". Every bundle section, whichever brand it covers, feeds a single board called "Mockup BUNDLES", which puts every set in the shop on one board.
With the boards mapped, Pin New Listings does the rest. Once a day it picks up listings that went live in the past day, turns each one into a pin and sends it to the board for that listing's section. A new color of a Gildan hoodie ends up on the Gildan board, next to every other Gildan mockup in the shop. Nobody has to open Pinterest to make the pin.
“I already sort everything by brand for Etsy. It made no sense to sort it all over again for Pinterest.”
Pin text straight from the listing
For pin text, Alura can write a version optimized for Pinterest with AI or use the Etsy text as written. ForwardNotionDesigns has its automation set to use the Etsy text as written. The titles already carry the brand, the style number, the color and the scene, which are the details a mockup buyer looks for.
The descriptions are built the same way. Each one opens with the product and color, then a short list of what's included, then a link to the matching bundle. Because that is the top of the description, it is also the top of the pin.
A new mockup finds its board on its own
A recent example: a pin titled "Mens Chambray Comfort Colors 1717 Front & Back Mockup Blue T-shirt Splitview Mockup CC1717" went to the Mockups - Comfort Colors board. Its description opens "Product: Comfort Colors 1717 T-Shirt. Color: Chambray", lists one high-resolution, watermark-free PNG, and ends with a link for the bundle version.
A white Gildan 18500 ski hoodie went to Mockups - Gildan. A Tapstitch boxy tee set landed on Mockup BUNDLES with a link to the whole shop bundle. A new color chart went to Size Guides & Color Charts. Nobody chose a board for any of them. The shop section did, and every pin links back to its Etsy listing.
Organize once, the way your buyers think
Get your shop sections right before anything else. If they follow the way your buyers search, by brand or by occasion or by room, everything built on top of them can follow too: boards, bundles, even the links inside your descriptions.
And put the exact name of the thing in the title. The more precise the product, the more precise the words.
“Set up your sections the way your customers shop. Once that makes sense, your boards and bundles almost organize themselves.”
ForwardNotionDesigns received Alura credits as a thank-you for sharing this story.