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Where to keep design resources?

Z

Zettt

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2009
34
0
Hello everyone,

I am looking for a solution to keep all resources for a particular, say, icon in one place. I've tried apps like Sparkbox or the new Pixa, but those apps only save the icon files themselves, not the PSD or SVG images.
Other alternatives may be Evernote or DEVONthink, but they are not really tailored to what I'm after. Plus DEVONthink is just way too overpowered.

I was wondering how others solved this problem or have a similar feeling of being overwhelmed by the non-organized-ness (;)) of their files.

Thanks
 
I'm not the most organized person, but I keep each project in a separate folder. The main folder is synced to Google Drive so it's backed up automatically (in addition to the Time Machine backups). I don't often work with very large files, so it will be a while before the free 5Gb runs out.
 
Zettt said:
I was wondering how others solved this problem or have a similar feeling of being overwhelmed by the non-organized-ness (;)) of their files.
Click to expand...

Good file organization is both a talent and a learned skill. One key is to be organized early in the process, as trying to make sense of a miss-mash of files afterwards is a huge hassle.

I don't know of any program that will do it for you.

I think it's up to you to set some personal standards and practices.
 
I think you're missing the point here. I'm not asking how to organize files. I'm asking how you keep the design resources organized. Do you keep a folder for icons with all the different icon files in one place for example? (e.g. the original AI file with the exported SVG, PNG and JPG) How do you keep files together? Do you make differences between icons and other images? Is there an app that is able to view all the different file sizes in one?

My file organization is fine. I just feel there should be a better way to keep all the different *resources* in one place.
 
I'm not a professional, but I use folders to organize by type (icon, brushes, fonts, vectors, stock images, etc) and then use adobe bridge if I want to browse through them. Bridge will show a preview of pretty much any filetype you would use in the design process and gives you pretty extensive search tools as well. Though it's not always fast...
 
Zettt said:
I think you're missing the point here. I'm not asking how to organize files. I'm asking how you keep the design resources organized.
Click to expand...

You're not asking how to organize files.

Your asking how to organize files.

Pardon me if I have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the two.
 
citizenzen said:
You're not asking how to organize files.

Your asking how to organize files.

Pardon me if I have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the two.
Click to expand...

He's not asking how to organize files. He's asking how to organize specific file types.

...which is about the same thing in the end. :p

And my answer to that question is: whatever you're most comfortable with. I organize all my files as such...

[project folder]
-[generic assets used in project]
-[inspiration shots]
-[source textures]
-[model WIPs]
--[specific models w/textures]
-[finished models]
-[finished textures]

...or some variation thereof. With that setup, I can find anything I need in about a split second. When I'm done, I'll keep everything intact save for the "generic assets" folder. I'll usually sort those out into my big folder of specific textures and objects for later user.
 
Renzatic said:
He's not asking how to organize files. He's asking how to organize specific file types.

...which is about the same thing in the end. :p

And my answer to that question is: whatever you're most comfortable with. I organize all my files as such...

[project folder]
-[generic assets used in project]
-[inspiration shots]
-[source textures]
-[model WIPs]
--[specific models w/textures]
-[finished models]
-[finished textures]

...or some variation thereof. With that setup, I can find anything I need in about a split second. When I'm done, I'll keep everything intact save for the "generic assets" folder. I'll usually sort those out into my big folder of specific textures and objects for later user.
Click to expand...

Yup, similar to my setup. 3D projects can get a bit more complicated, but for my web projects I've usually got a project folder for that site with something like:

Files from client
Content
Photos
PSD
AI
HTML

If I have a need to break a project down more I can, but it's generally not tough to find the specific asset I need pretty quickly.
 
I worked with a guy who would have a 4 folder structure.
[UXy Stuff]
[Design Stuff]
[Other Stuff]
[Funny Stuff]

It drove me nuts when he left because for 2+ years of working files it was near on impossible to find...

On the upside he had one of the most extensive LOL cats collection I've ever come across.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I do the folder structure too. Consider using the new tagging in Mavericks, it'll help you a lot.
Click to expand...

Tagging is one of the new features in Mavericks that I've enjoyed the most.

Now if they'd just let me assign custom colors to those tags ...
 
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