When was the last time you completed a task outside of the timeframe you originally had in mind? Perhaps you thought it would only take two hours, but it ended up taking you your whole day!
This is a problem I have as a designer more often than I’d like to admit. Whether it was because I had to do a piece of work I’m not usually accustomed to do or I got lost admiring the amazing shots of other designers on dribbble for longer than I should have.
When you look back and wonder what it is that kept you from finishing that task within the timeframe, it can turn out to be just one or a lot of little things. The obstacles between you and finishing are all too many. But, things can get especially more complicated when you’re working along with another designer.
Like
“Hey, Mariela I don’t have the fonts you used for this project or this photo.”
or
“Luis, where is the logo for so and so? I need to use it for this brochure.”
It is so frustrating when you don’t have that one thing to finish your task right off the bat, and have to wait longer than you expected to get it or find it yourself.
It completely throws you off. We realized this was happening way too much. We assessed our situation and wondered how we could avoid little things like this, and we both agreed that…
We needed a shared storage, where we both have easy access to the files we store.
We needed a systematic approach to naming our files. After a few hours researching, we decided we would name files using the client name initials, name of the file, designer initials, and the version of the file. For example, instead of naming the file bobs_restaurant_logo.pdf, we’d name it BR_logo_mp_v1.pdf.
We have to include fonts, photos, logos, icons, etc. along with the project itself.
Sketch and discuss project approach with one another and the client before starting, to make sure you’re headed down the right direction (Duh, right? But sometimes you’re stubborn, and you think we have the greatest idea ever. You execute it and you love it, and you find out that wasn’t the direction they had in mind. Oh hey, you just wasted 5 hours. So don’t ever assume you’re exempt from following the basic steps of production. Seriously, you will regret it.)
The few seconds or minutes it takes you to name a file properly will save you so much time in the end. Imagine yourself looking for this one project, and then not being able to find it because you didn’t name it the way you should have.
You will probably have to do the entire thing again. The time you spent on this could have been used to advance on another task.
As you can see, we are not the designer gods we wish we were. Just kidding… Yes, we are. (Okay, no, not really.) But we are doing what we can to become better and more efficient designers.
Every time we finish a project we look back, critically assess our chosen approaches, and refactor. These efforts will help us concoct some kind of secret formula that will increase our productivity and decrease our production time, and hopefully it will taste like pizza and keep us young forever.
Here are a few articles that helped us along the way.
Photoshop Etiquette Organize Your Design Files - Or Else! Handing Off PSDs That Won't Make Your Co-Workers Hate You
We would love to hear about what kind of problems you’ve faced when working to complete any task (it doesn’t necessarily have to be design related), and how you solved it.