Today we’re talking how to organise your art portfolio with SKU numbers! A few people have asked me about this over on Instagram lately so I thought I’d do a video!
How to Organise your Art Portfolio with SKU Numbers: Video Transcript
Hello! Today we’re talking SKUs, which is a weird thing to make a video about, but a few people have asked me recently how I allocate my SKU numbers, so here is how I choose them!
These are my personal thoughts on what works for me and what I use for running my business. Other people will have different methods, and that’s okay!
The numbers are for YOU
The most important thing to remember is that the numbers are purely there for your benefit. A client will happily refer to your work by whatever way/name/number you have labelled them. The important thing is to name them in a way that leaves you in no doubt as to which design they’re referring to. SKU23776 is much easier to look up and know what they mean than “that flowery purple one.”
So the first rule is that there are no rules and no client is going to think you’re weird or wrong for whatever system you’ve chosen. I start with my initials and then I put the year. So any patterns I’ve made this year will start RF23. I archive my designs by year on my external hard drive, so this helps me to know exactly where to go to look for them if I needed to dig something out.
I don’t assign specific numbers for collections
I don’t assign specific numbers for collections because I think it just overcomplicates things. I’ll just start the first design I made this year RF23001. The next one is RF23002, and that is literally all there is to it! I like this because it’s a fun way to keep track of how many designs I’ve made each year and the more complicated you make a system, the less useful it actually becomes.
the more complicated you make a system, the less useful it actually becomes.
If you’re going to end up feeling paralysed with what number to use when you want to go back and add something to a collection and the next subsequent number is already used up, that is not a method that is serving you well. As long as the client can mention a design by its SKU so that I know exactly which design they’re talking about, that is the job of the SKU fulfilled, right there! It’s a number purely for you and a buyer is not going to think you’re weird if you have a collection with a sell sheet that has lots of different or non-consecutive numbers in it.
So as I said, this is the system that I personally use and I’m sure everyone has their own way of doing it, so feel free to absorb parts you like and leave the rest behind. The main thing is to use the system that makes sense to you, your brain, your way of thinking, and that doesn’t require you to ever have to go back and renumber things when you want to go back and add stuff into old collections.
One last tip for you.
When I’m about to allocate a new number to something, I’ll open up the search bar on my computer or iPad. Start typing in RF23, blah blah, blah to double check what the last number I used was so that I don’t end up with any duplicates.
Thank you for watching. If you have any other questions about SKUs, let me know in the comments or if you’ve got any other topics you’d like me to make a video about, let me know as well. Don’t forget to subscribe for tips like this every Wednesday and I will see you soon!