Too often creative people allow themselves to forget everything in the moment of ‘idea,’ and subsequently lose much of the power of creative process. It is most certainly a difficult thing to put structure to what we feel should be an organic free-flowing process. However, few things could be more critical the ultimate success of that creative process than having the systems in place to support it.
Because it’s so easy to lose perspective, it is important to develop systems that are bigger than ourselves to serve as a protection of and from ourselves. That is to say, systems to help ensure that, in spite of outside forces and human error, the creative process can thrive.
The goal here is not to create an absolute how-to. Instead I want to encourage thinking about systems in three big areas – time, finances and files – to empower you to do smarter, better work.
THE X-FILES
If you work in the creative arts, I’m willing to bet you didn’t get there because you were really excited about file management (if you did, leave a comment, we need to talk). Every day the number of digital assets required to do creative work is growing: fonts, photos, videos, icons, web documents, not to mention the virtual paper-trail that comes with managing clients, or just having an e-mail account. And how do you ever find anything in that mess?
A worthwhile question to explore is: ‘If I disappeared, could someone navigate my file system, or pick up on my projects for me?’ As the title of this article states, the systems have to be bigger than ourselves. The answer to that question has a breadth of answers and pieces, but here are three significant sections of it.
Hierarchy
Move from least to most specific. I know that seems obvious, but common practice is different from common sense. Start by creating broad ‘bins’ for files. For example, my top-level bins may be Video, Photo, & Design. Inside the Design folder I might have sub-folders of Web, Print & Other. You get the idea. The key here is to do it in such a way that it is easily navigable.
Naming & Meta data
One of the biggest obstacles to finding files even within a well structured system is poor naming. Be careful and intentional in your naming. If all of your files are named the date they were created, it is about as meaningless as a completely unorganized mess of files. I recommend hinting at two things in your file names: content & context. What’s in it, and what is it for or from? Another helpful organizational tool that is typically underused is metadata. Yes it can be time consuming, but do yourself the favor and create tags that help sort things out. The same idea of content and context applies here as well.
Backing Up
This is pretty straightforward. Use
Time Machine. If you have a PC, get an
Apple and then use Time Machine. Depending on quantity, it might be worth investing in a
RAID system. The other piece that can’t be recommended enough is to get cloud server space. Services like
Dropbox and
Mobile Me make having virtual, universally accessible storage so easy there is no reason not to, and there are hundreds of advantages.
TIMELY WORDS
With all the resources available to me, the one I cannot acquire more of, and most regularly run out of, is time. Everything has demands on time, so creating clear and organized systems around it is often the only way to make it work out. So here are three biggies for time.
Protect
“Where’d the day go? Where’d the week go? What happened to this
year?” Ever asked these questions? Time has to be guarded, because it is always running away. While scheduling is important (more on that in a second) there is a sneaky tendency of time to get away even within schedules – social networking, unexpected conversations and a myriad of other distractions. For myself, I’ve used
Concentrate – a sweet little app – to guard against this. Awareness is half the battle. Blocking
Facebook and
Twitter is the other half.
Schedule
Beyond keeping a calendar (start if you don’t already), set specific times for specific tasks. Try, as much as possible to set clear time for recurring tasks – answering e-mail, writing quotes, blogging, etc. Be specific in projects, setting additional artificial deadlines to keep on track. This prevents having to pull college-style all-nighters on older-than-college-age energy, but it also gives mile markers to keep clients up to pace on where their projects stand. Again, these aren’t intended to be rigid answers, but examples to help you think about your own situation.
Take off
I am really bad at this, but it is extremely important. A close psychologist friend of mine is quick to remind me of the value of self-care. Just because you love what you’re doing, doesn’t mean it isn’t taking energy. Set apart regular time off and time away. Long term I guarantee this will improve your creativity, and help you to bring better, fresher ideas to the table. If you value the sustainability and quality of your own work, make rest a habit.
CASH MONEY
Ah, money. It always seems to come down to this, doesn’t it? Few things can cause more problems than cash, whether you have too much of it or not enough. If there was ever anything that needed boundaries around it to keep it from taking over and/or destroying creativity (or just about anything else) it’s money. So what does that mean?
Know Your Assets
Too often, creatives don’t know what it is that makes their work valuable, and either give it away or
steal it from others. Ideas are assets – treat them like cash; don’t get yourself into intellectual debt. Sometimes this means educating clients on what it is they are paying for, but more often than not it really means having a strong personal understand of the relative worth of your work in the market.
Set Rates
Once there is a clear understanding of creative asset worth, setting rates that reflect that value is the obvious next step. Consistency helps to create stability for both creatives and clients. Whenever I talk to creatives, this seems to be one of the hardest things to do. There is a lot of pressure to back down, go lower, get wishy-washy. It doesn’t benefit you in the long run. Stick to your proverbial guns. While you might have pay tiers (different for a large corporation than a small
non-profit, for example) clear definition to those levels allows the best work to be done for the price that is being paid.
Budget
It can be extremely difficult to regulate irregular income. That said, especially in freelance work, budgeting is vital. In much the same way as scheduling time, it can serve as the double edged sword of protecting for and from yourself. Again, basic, but think percentages if hard numbers aren’t predictable – that way you’ll have guidelines in place for whenever the money does (or doesn’t) come. There are also a plethora of budgeting softwares and sites out there. Explore and find one that works best for you.
COMMENTS
Mr. Vosburg…. good info, as always!
As you’re well aware, I’m one of those nuts that enjoys file management. I’ll usually tie each freelance job together in an invoice-able chunk, described by a three-character client code and the title of the project (some sort of unique). This is also reflected in my folder structure. If I had more individual jobs, I’d likely adopt a job number system with some sort of connection to calendar year. But thats just me… and I’m a neat freak.
Along those same lines (and echoing what you said), when working in animation and post, it’s easy to quickly amass hundreds of assets (from audio, captured video files, vector logos, original & modified vector art, photos, stock images, not to mention project files, etc. etc. etc.). Organization is vital. Save source images in a “Source” folder. Render precomps to a “Precomp” folder. Export client-ready comps to a “Proofs” folder. Keep folders clean and simple, leaving flexibility to adapt to individual projects. I haven’t had much luck with meta-data, but I can see it being a lifesaver with some aspects of organization.
A little disappointed you didn’t mention Mint.com (http://bit.ly/9Bf7cs). Best money website ever!
Keep ‘em coming Vos!
Thanks for the encouragement, Scott. I’m a little disappointed you didn’t notice the mint.com logo next to the ‘BUDGET’ header – it’s a link.
Thanks for contributing & sharing your process!
well how about that… noticed the logo, but thought it was just an easter egg
nice work.
[...] David Vosburg [...]
Just so you know windows has a built in backup feature. Aptly named backup utility. What is it with you Mac people that you think your computers are so much better. My computer is twice as powerful for a quarter of the price and I have not had any problems with it in years. All Adobe software runs exactly the same on my computer that yours.
Owning a Mac does not make you any better of a designer or more creative.
All you have is an overpriced computer that you will not be able to update the hardware as technology advances.
..and when something does go wrong with your computer have fun dealing with Apple to get it fixed.
Ryan, thanks for the feedback. I definitely agree with you that no piece of hardware or software ever makes you a better designer or creative of any kind. I worked for a long time from a PC, and I know several animators who work primarily in Linux. Nevertheless, as a whole for customer experience, I’ve loved using Apple. The same cannot be said for other operating systems or hardware that I’ve worked with. It’s a tribe thing (Seth Godin) – same reason I shoot Canon and drive a Toyota.
At the same time, I rather resent Adobe’s dominance, and I think limitation of, much of the design software world. That’s for another post…
Oh dude, being a Mac user totally makes you more creative. It’s time we just came out and said it. It also makes us smarter and have better haircuts. We get better looking girls and and all the other designers want to be like us, lets stop apologizing, and tell it like it is.
David Thanks for another interesting perspective. I work in an office, and therefore have separate computers for work and personal/freelance.
I find that my personal computer become a bit more cluttered with this and that, while my work computer is quite neat and orderly. Do you have any insights about separating creative life from family life on the home computer?
Travis – this has taken me a while to get around to writing, but I think it’s worthwhile to talk about the home/work split. I think it’s a pretty common struggle. I have a tower at the office that stays very ordered and honed to my workflow, and a take anywhere notebook that I use for both work and personal stuff. The biggest success for me keeping work things & personal things from messing with each other is to have an external drive for work stuff. The other thing I might suggest in regards to internet stuff (bookmarks etc.) is to use two separate browsers – one with work-centered stuff, the other personal.
Also if you have multiple users setting up separate profiles is, obviously, very helpful.