Posted by admin | Posted in File Backups, Graphic Design | Posted on 06-03-2010
If there is one thing I’ve learned as a designer for nearly 10 years it’s to SAVE everything. a lot of work has been eliminated through the years because I have been able to go back and quickly put my hands on a certain file, font or stock photo that was previously used for a project.
Unfortunately, you probably already know that SAVING EVERYTHING can take a lot of time and space. This week a fellow designer and colleague asked about my file practices. I realized this is an area where we can certainly all learn from each other as we share our methods and increase our effeciency.
So, here’s what I do:
My file structure is first broken down into clients. Sometimes by their names or their company names.Inside those ‘client’ folders, I break each client down by projects.
Such as:
Business Card
Bookmark
CD Covers
Website
Now, within each of those “project” folders, I include folders for all the parts of the projects:
Such as:
Concepts
Stock Photos
Fonts
Final
Revisions
As I mentioned, so many times, this has saved me being able to go back and pull some random part from a project quickly. Depending on the size and scope of the project, sometimes within that structure I’ll also have to break it down into layered files and flattened files, so I may also have a directory for JPEGs, PSD, INDD etc. Just depending on the program used and project specifics.
That’s me and how I handle my files. What about you?
Thank you for sharing this. I usually just name the folder the name of the client then throw all of the files in that one folder… It works great until I have to find that one file. OOPS!