Background: Frans Francken the Younger, Interior of a Picture Gallery, 17th century. Public domain

01

About that building

pinax, the panel

In Greek, a board you write or paint on. It also meant a catalogue: a record of what is where.The word is still alive inside the product. A single card on a board is a Pinax.

theke, the place that holds

The same theke as in bibliotheke, the word for a library. It was never a word about display. It was a word about keeping things safe.

The two together became pinacotheca, and later pinacoteca. The Brera gallery in Milan and the museum in São Paulo are both called that today. Drop one sound and you have Pinateca.

02

It does the same job

Every panel is a different shape

Kanban, Gantt, calendar, timetable, resource, grid, list, discussion. Eight panels of different sizes and different uses, held in one building. The paintings in a gallery are not the same as each other either.

Lining things up is not enough

A gallery both shows and protects. A record of work is the same. If you cannot find it, if it disappears, if you cannot look back at it later, it means nothing. We took the name intending to do that part too.

03

Four panes of glass

Transparent, because nothing is hidden

They look like glass, but each pane is a piece of work. The idea is that you can see what is happening inside. They are laid out without overlapping, which means they are kept apart.

One pane is lifted

That is the work in hand. Not everything laid out equally, but one thing in front, the thing to do next. That is all this tool is trying to do.

04

How to say it

Pinateca

pee-nah-TEH-kah. In Japanese it is written ピナテカ, and always that way.

The shape of the name does not change

Pinateca and pinateca, and nothing else. No capital in the middle, no abbreviation. We would rather the name stayed in one shape.

See whether the tool lives up to the name.

Free for up to 5 people. No credit card.