Sorting vector/art directory

[Josh Jackson]

Hello everyone,

As I have been working on projects for customers I have developed a small directory of artwork and vectors. (All retrieved legally) However, since there are various styles within each image/vector. Such as a celtic cross with horses in the design, skulls with filigree, and a wide variety of borders. Since I am still moderately new to the field I was wondering how you all sort your files for an easy searchable directory? I am already having a bit of difficulty and want to get ahead of the curve in my file naming before it becomes atrocious.

Thanks in advance.

Josh
Owner, InDepth Engraving LLC

[Joe Pelonio]

If you have Sharepoint, you can create a library with metadata that you can use to search. For example, for the Celtic cross with horse, use keywords Celtic, Cross, and horse. When you search for any of those words it will pop up. Before I had that, I just created many diectories with sub directories. For example, vector art -> animals -> dogs -> spaniels

[Dave Sheldrake]

Easy :)

I have mine sorted into

Stuff
More Stuff
General Stuff
Expensive stuff
Backup stuff
General (expletive)
Important Stuff
Need to sort stuff

etc etc

I love my filing system, sadly my secretary doesn't :)

cheers

Dave

[Josh Jackson]

Thank you Joe. I hadn't thought of SharePoint. Sadly my filing now is similar to what your original was.

Hahahaha. I'm glad you can keep track of that Dave. My condolences to your secretary.

Josh

[Chuck Stone]

I have the same kinds of directories I'm seeing here.
Stuff
Mobile pics
Thumb drive
Sort
Misc sort
working
--templates
--completed
--archive
Master files
etc. etc...

[Doug Griffith]

I name/rename all my files with descriptive names. ie. "one_horn_ugly_goat_realistic_silhouette.ai". If it was used for a specific job I add that as well. Then I search my drive by file type and name. It's always a search for me.

[Mike Null]

Josh

I would use the Corel clip art folders that come with your suite. Within clip art there are sub folders for various vector files as well as photos etc. Then there is a feature included in Corel called Connect which will speed up finding art from this and other sources. I just installed it on my laptop but didn't have it installed on my working desktop.

[Kev Williams]

After saving files on computers since 1981, I've found searching is the best way to find stuff. Like others say, put key words in the filename. To keep the search to a minimum, I try to keep ALL jobs for all graphics programs on one main folder on one hard drive on one computer. Searching my entire list takes about 15 seconds. Searching the C drive can take 15 minutes! Also, I have a backup drive that I put older files on, in the same manner.

[Jason Hilton]

In the past I've used descriptive names and directory names. More recently I've started adding descriptive tags to individual files and folders. On Mac OS Mavricks tags are built in, in other OSes there are numerous plugins available for Mac and PC to add file tagging functionality. By tagging you can create dynamic groups of files that otherwise don't fit a single category. For example, I have a grunge tag and a borders tag, and some have both, but I wouldn't have a logical way to keep and search for them in a single directory. By tagging you can search by tag/multiple tags and return all the files you have that fit your criteria. The time consuming part comes when you first implement a tagging system, because you have to go through and tag everything!

[David Somers]

A few more considerations on tags. In Windows you can't tag things like Microsoft Office Documents and text files with the tools native to Win 7 and 8. But you can certainly do all the common graphics formats. A quick Google search on Windows 7 file tags or Windows 8 file tags will give you details on the native abilities of those OS's as well as add ons you can use. XP will require an add on to do tagging. Keep in mind MS support for Windows XP ends in April and it will no longer get security updates and patches after that.

If you do start using tags, they tend to work best if you come up with a list of tags you will use and stick with them. Add to the list as you need to, but try sticking to the list or you can have difficulty remembering how you tagged things from long ago.

And remember that tagging allows a file to have more than one tag. A file that is a vector file of a horse might have a "vector" tag, a "horse" tag, a "western" tag, and a "nag" tag and could be found by searching on any one of those tags. Or as Jason said, by searching for combinations of tags. The point is though, you help yourself by being a bit anal and standardizing your tags and keeping a list of them for reference in your dotage. <grin>

Dave

[Jason Hilton]

I actually go the opposite way on my tags. The more the better. With tags and meta data in general, it's always better to make a file as searchable as possible. For example, if I have vector of a horse, I'll tag it "horse", "animal", "equestrian", and then add other things based on the file, is the horse "cute"? "fuzzy"? "Majestic"? Your goal here isn't to create a strict taxonomy, but to create a flexible, searchable index of your files. You don't want to have to struggle to remember what your tags are, but instead assign enough descriptive tags so that any variation you might search on will return the files most useful to your project. It also helps when you run a shop where multiple people will need to find those files. It allows others to search organically rather than first having to learn a complex and unique taxonomy.

[David Somers]

I think both methods have equal use Jason! I tend to be more of a linear thinker and if I have been more free form in my tagging of things I have lots of trouble finding things later cause I don't remember the tags I used to do it. When I am a bit more structured I do better. I still use a ton of tags, I just try to be more organized in how I apply them. But I also have lots of folks I work with who are more organic in their organization and they can find things in a snap using your approach. The lovely thing about tags is they are adaptable to your strengths! <grin> I also work largely by myself so I don't have to deal with others needing to find things.

Dave

[Josh Jackson]

Wow. Thanks everyone for the responses. I do have Microsoft as my OS so I will have to use Microsoft add-ons or CorelDraw Connect (I admit I've not tinkered with all of the other CD software). From what I can tell it's mostly preference and how we remember.

Despite me being great at organizing professionally I am not personally. If I did a very concise list I'd have a document with a list of all of the tags I'd used. Yes, caught the pun David.

Jason, that is a good point though.