Get the best tips on how to organize your design assets and be more productive
As designers, we are always downloading new tools, fonts, and assets to use in our next project. It’s not uncommon to have an overflowing downloads folder or desktop. I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets the dreaded popup that says “your startup disk is almost full.”
When we are busy it’s easy to get disorganized. Today I will give you some tips for organizing all those files and be more productive.
Reasons why it’s best to get organized.
- You will save time
- Your computer will run faster
- You will feel productive
- You will do better work
The Best Tips to get you organized and be more productive
Two of the most important tips are meant to clear the clutter on your machine to make it work better. The more you store on your computer, the slower the programs will run. We all hate the rainbow wheel of death.
Use an external drive
If you use a laptop, get an external drive or two for putting away old project folders (and the movies you keep downloading). Your drives should be at least 1 Tera in capacity. If you are a photographer you might need larger ones. One external drive will serve as backup while the other should be close to your computer at all times. To further improve your computer’s performance, use the external drive as if it were part of the desktop.
Use an online storage service
Unfortunately, hardware sometimes malfunctions. We have all had that horrible experience of losing all our work due to dead motherboards or a corrupted hard drive. Thankfully now we have easy access to cloud storage!
Since cloud storage at large capacity isn’t free, best to only use it for important files and not useless fluff. Huge design asset files should be kept in there so as to not crowd your hard drive. Then from there, download what you are really using into your external hard drive.
Cloud storage is great for keeping your finished project files that can later be used in a portfolio or your own website. File away contracts for ongoing projects, or better yet use an online contract system like Gatekeeper or Trackadoo.
Some reliable cloud services for file storage are Dropbox, Apple Cloud, Google Drive. Google Drive is also great for exchanging files with your clients. Assets in Google Drive can also be organized into folders and subfolders to be able to find anything quickly.
Use labeled folders and subfolders
Remember those metal file cabinets with folders? Well computer folders were inspired by those so why not use them the same way? The best way to organize your files and assets into folders is to also use subfolders. A very common way of having an overflowing desktop is to save new designs with revisions without adding the date in the file name. That is how we end up with files that look like this;
Here is an example of an organized folder hierarchy for an imaginary Web Design client:
Main Folder: “Clients”
Secondary Folder: Name of client – Website Design – Name of Website – Date
- Documents
- Signed Contract
- Client Passwords
- Website Copy
- Home
- About
- Services
- Photography
- HD
- Jpeg
- Png
- Styled
- Illustrations / Vectors / Icons
- Jpeg
- Png
- Branding Assets / Brand Style Guide
- Logos
- Fonts
- Color Schemes
- Finished designs (include the date in the file name)
- Headers
- Sidebar widgets
- Author Bio
- Blog Header Templates
- Social Media Templates
- Designs in process
- SVG
- AI
- Photoshop
- HTML
Use color codes
You can make sure that your folders and subfolders are easy to recognize by using color codes. Now, don’t go crazy with the colors or then it will be a huge rainbow mess. Make sure the colors make sense. For example:
Image / Photography folders: Blue
Graphics / Vectors and Illustrations: Red
Documents: Green
Another idea for color coding is to use a different color for every ongoing client or project. Then inside those subfolders, keep it simple without colors. The color coding is just a suggestion, it helps some people while it completely confuses others. And that’s ok!
Organize your fonts
One of the things all designers have lots of is fonts. With so many available fonts and typefaces on the internet, our computers are overflowing with script fonts that look almost the same! It is inevitable to either end up using a few favorite fonts, or waste time scrolling through the collection to see which one works.
There are ways in which you can organize your fonts to know exactly what you have. Other systems help with font choosing and testing. With a folder system in your computer you can separate your fonts into styles, but with some special programs, you can see the fonts in action and even compare one to another, saving time and feeling more productive.
Check out these font organizing programs and find your favorite: Nexus Font, Main Type by High Logic, Font Expert and Suitcase Fusion. Let us know which one you like so we can do a feature on it!
Get rid of unnecessary files
Whenever we download design assets from Freepik, files land in our computer as zip files. Once you unzip them, the zip files don’t need to sit in your downloads folder anymore. Just get rid of them. If you have been downloading stock photos and they didn’t work for the project you downloaded them for, just get rid of them. Or store it all in a separate folder called “unused stock” to check through next time you need something.
It is so easy to get bogged down with photos and assets we didn’t even end up using in a design. Better just clear things out every couple of weeks so your computer is in optimum performance condition.
Empty the Trash
Once you have cleared unwanted files, by moving them to the cloud, to the external drive, or to the trash; make sure you empty the trash! When you don’t empty out the trash on your computer, those files are still inside your startup disk so you haven’t completely cleared them away. Only by emptying the trash will they be gone for good.
Have you got any more productive organizational tips?
Tell us in the comments if we missed something!
