How to Keep Your Design Files Organized

A logo is only one of the many designs you will use as a business. The logo may have several versions stored in different files. You then have the designs for letterheads, identities, brochures, promotional materials, and many others to maintain. It doesn’t take long before you start dealing with hundreds of design files related to your business.

Keeping them organized is a necessity and not an option. When you have a good design file management system, you can always find the design files you need at any moment. The file management system also allows you to protect your design files better, all while maintaining consistency with your materials.

Even better, you don’t have to use a complex system to keep your design files organized. These tips and tricks will help you get started with managing your files.

Use Folders, Filenames, and Tags

First, organize your files in a certain way. You can separate types of designs into folders, and then add project-specific subfolders to make searching for a specific file easier. With the logo design files, for example, you can use Logo as the main folder, and use subfolders such as Fonts, Vectors, and more to organize materials accordingly.

The same can be said for filenames. You want the filenames to be searchable, to make finding a specific material easier. Rather than naming a poster that you use for a promotional offer Poster_1.ai, be more specific and add additional details. Poster-SummerSale-082018.ai is a lot easier to search, don’t you think?

Archive Unused Design Files

It is not uncommon to have tons of design files going in and out of your drive, especially when working on a project. The Summer Sale poster we used as an example earlier, for instance, may have several versions before it – after revisions and changes – is finalized.

You can either choose to delete the revision files or keep them. If the latter is what you want to do, create an extra subfolder for each project and store all revision files inside that folder. Once the project is completed, you can archive the project folder and keep your main design folder efficient.

Back Up and Restore

Speaking of archiving your unused design files, it is also a good idea to maintain multiple copies – stored in different places – to provide extra protection for essential design files. Logo files and other critical designs are assets that you want to sufficiently protect.

Maintaining multiple copies and backing up the design files to the cloud are the two things you need to do from the start. At the very least, you can recover most of the files you need in the event of a data loss or hardware failure.

You also have professional recovery services from top providers like Secure Data Recovery acting as an added security layer. When your files get damaged in transit, Secure Data Recovery can perform USB or SD card recovery to get those essential files back.

One last tip to keep in mind: stay organized no matter what. With the design files properly organized, you can always find the files you need with a simple search. Better file management leads to a faster and more efficient design workflow that also supports your business’s marketing efforts.

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