6 tips for seamlessly organizing your digital art assets and files

Digital and online art can sometimes be difficult to keep track of. There is a lot of different software used for creating digital art or design pieces, and with all the many files and assets that need organizing, it’s easy to lose track of efficient processes if you don’t have systems in place. You may think things are working pretty well until you can’t find something someday. So it always helps to learn new ways to improve the process by streamlining your asset and file organization.

Create, schedule, and collaborate in one place

It may not be possible for all forms of digital artistry, but there is an increasing amount of software available to help you create your art, collaborate with others, and schedule or share your work, all in the same place.

Adobe products and Canva are two great options that encourage collaboration, creation, and sharing. Open-source alternative creative software may lack these features, but as they say, you often get what you pay for in non-open-source software.

My favorite tool that allows for storage, cross-platform access, collaboration, organization, and so much more is Adobe Express. With recent updates, you can link live assets from other Adobe software to edit in Express, you can schedule social media content directly from Express’s content calendar, while saving everything in the Creative Cloud for easy storage and access.

Related

11 ways Adobe Express for teams can revolutionize your workflow

An Adobe Express Teams subscription can make your business thrive in creative ways

5 Benefit from content management systems

It’s not just about storing your files, but also organizing processes and projects

Whether you work as part of a larger team or just by yourself, and whether you focus only on digital art as a hobby or a business venture, organization in all forms will streamline your creative processes.

There are many content management systems (CMS) you can choose from, such as Airtable, Asana, Monday.com, Notion, and a whole host more. Some of these have free options, individual plans, or business options for larger teams.

You can use them just for yourself to help organize your projects, client documents, notes, assets, brand guidelines, and much more. Organization within the workflow will help keep your files straight too, as you’ll have a system in place you don’t want to disturb.

On the note of using CMS, you may also benefit from productivity apps like TickTick or Notion which is a great tool that can be used as a to-do app, CMS, or for internal communication.

4 Package your design files correctly

Don’t lose essential elements

This isn’t relevant for all digital art files or assets, but if you’re working on designing for print processes or any client work where you must send live files on to the client or to a printer, then packaging your files is imperative for organization and a streamlined workflow.

For example, if you’re creating layout designs using Adobe InDesign or a desktop publishing alternative like Scribus or QuarkXPress, once the project is finished, you should package the files. In InDesign, this can be done from File > Package.

Packaging your files extracts all live elements, such as imported or placed images and the live font file, and saves them in their own folder alongside the live document and the saved PDF. This also offers a warning if any assets are lost — giving you an opportunity to re-link them. Linking all assets is important when sending your projects to others, otherwise their systems will substitute fonts or pixelate images as they cannot access the high-quality versions.

3 File nesting and naming techniques

Find a system that works for you

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all nesting and naming technique for digital files. However, many successful techniques do follow a similar pattern. It largely depends on how much output you’re creating, how big your business or art hobby is, how many clients or projects you’re working with, and how far back your data needs to be retained.

For larger businesses or longer file history, perhaps you may choose to nest your files’ folders named as each year, then separated by each month, and then by each week within a month. For easier tracking, all files could be kept in the folder dated from the first week the project started, rather than when it was finished.

Within your project or client’s folder, you should establish a way to store the project files and assets, too. This includes what, where, and when to save assets, as well as predictable naming techniques for much easier file organization. Using a predictable naming technique is great for your future self, so you know how to search for specific file types without needing to hunt through every folder opening files to see what they are.

These naming practices might look like: Client Name > Project 1 | Project 2 | Project 3 > Live File | Digital Files > Social Media > Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Print Files > CMYK | Pantone.

Within your project folder, you should have separate folders for each file type such as AI, PSD, PNG, SVG, PDF, photos, RGB formats, CMYK formats, social media images, and whatever else you need for your project output. This will make organization and future access simple.

2 Choose one consistent cloud system

Invest in one main cloud storage hub for long-term use

Cloud-based storage is not only a great modern-day solution for storing your files, but it also helps with online collaboration between project partners, clients, and stakeholders when required.

There are so many cloud storage options, and you likely have access to multiple without even trying. Apple users have iCloud, Outlook users have OneDrive, Microsoft users can use SharePoint, then there’s also Dropbox, Google Drive, Creative Cloud, and so many more choices. Most of these options can be had without going out of our way to find specific cloud storage, so imagine what’s available if you go and search for more.

With so much choice, it might feel easy to just use all the free storage across all the cloud storage offerings instead of paying for one larger amount of storage in one place, but that wreaks havoc on your creative file management.

Choose one cloud storage type, and then pay to upgrade to a larger storage amount. 1TB should probably be your minimum, but 2TB is a good safety net. Or, you could always upgrade your cloud storage as needed later.

Having all your files stored with one consistent system means it’s easier for your own sanity and file organization, but it also helps streamline the sharing or collaboration processes with your clients, printing partners, project teammates, or whomever you need to share with. This offers the biggest benefit when using a business account, as everyone can log into the same hub to access the files from their own computer or account.

1 Use both cloud and local storage

One of the most important tips for organizing your creative files is to ensure you’ve saved them in multiple places. While your risk factor depends on your use case, if you’re proud of your digital art, whatever the use or type, then you should ensure it is safe in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

Many digital creative software comes with cloud storage built-in; however, I wouldn’t rely entirely on that. Especially if you’re an Adobe user relying on Creative Cloud storage — anyone who stops their Creative Cloud subscription has their cloud storage reduced from the current amount (whether you have the 1TB, 20GB, or 100GB option) down to 2GB, with a 30-day buffer to ensure you’re below the limit. If, after 30 days, your file storage is above 2GB, you might — in Adobe’s words — lose access to any excess files.

To ensure full protection of your files, choose a minimum of two storage types and locations. Consider one cloud storage and one local or SSD-based repo. Hard disk drives still have plenty of use in the modern day, too.

For better protection, three storage locations are recommended for most professional settings. This may include two cloud and one storage drive, or one cloud, one local, and one hard drive, or any other combination that gives you peace of mind and security.

You should back up your files in all locations at the end of every working day. If it’s more of a hobby, then once a week may be plenty. Check routinely that your file storage is still working as it should. Don’t just rely on the hope that nothing will go wrong.

Related

How often should you check your hard drive health?

We all know that we should monitor our storage drives to prevent data loss but exactly how often is enough?

It’s never too late to improve your digital art file management

The tips provided are not exclusively for managing art files, but overall to manage the process of organizing your creative workflow, which largely includes file and asset management. A clean and streamlined workflow results in efficient creative output. Creative brains often run best in clean environments — that includes their online environments. Whether you’re reevaluating which software to use, moving everything to a single cloud storage, ensuring a safe amount of backup storage loctions, or simply just renaming your files for ease and efficiency, these tips can overhaul your creative file and asset management and, thus, your workflow.