Learn how I organise my surface pattern design workflow with tags! Are you a surface pattern designer struggling to keep your workflow and files organised on your iOS/iPadOS/MacOS device? Well, I have a quick little trick for you which helps me keep on top of things!
In this video, I’ll show you how to use Finder Tags to efficiently manage and categorise your surface pattern designs, illustrations and other projects, making your creative process smoother and more streamlined.
By implementing Finder Tags into your surface pattern design workflow, you can easily access and organise your files without the hassle of searching through folders or scrolling endlessly. This step-by-step tutorial will guide you through the process of setting up custom tags and I’ll show you how I use them in my workflow.
If you want to find out more about organising your surface pattern designs, you can learn all about setting up an SKU system here.
Organise your surface pattern design workflow with tags: Video Transcript
Hello. Today I want to share with you a really quick tip for keeping track of what pattern or illustration files you’re working on at any given moment. Which ones are done, which ones are ready for uploading or which ones you might need to archive. This tip will work for you if you use an iMac or MacBook or an iPad for organising your files. I’m afraid I don’t use a Windows computer, so I’m not sure if there’s a similar function for that within that ecosystem.
So these tags up here on the left are really useful for easily finding certain types of files or folders. I typically work on one huge collection of work at a time in Procreate, and then I’ll send all the files over to my computer at the same time for organising doing things like naming, editing, picking different colours, putting them into cell sheets, upload into my portfolio, putting them into print on demand assets and uploading to Spoonflower. It is a whole process, let me tell you! But it’s easier doing a whole collection all in one big batch like that.
So as soon as I send a bunch of files over, they all get tagged with this “work needed” tag. I think of it like my in-tray. I also use it for any videos I’ll send over that need editing for YouTube or Skillshare.
It can be overwhelming, but it’s also really useful to click on that tag and see all the projects that need to be finished up. It means I can switch on my computer and I can jump right in and not waste any time trying to remember what I’m meant to be doing. It’s also a good way of seeing lots of random items that might be in lots of different folders or on the computer all in one place.
So for example, I wouldn’t have all my video files in the same folders as my illustration files, but I can click on this and see everything that needs doing, whether it’s an illustration file or a video file.
To set up custom tags, right click on a file you want to tag and type a new name in there. We’ll call this one “inbox.” Pick a colour and then we’ll hit enter.
Now up here, click on all tags and you’ll see the one you just added. Now you can drag it over to the sidebar and you’re done.
Now, when you want to add this tag to an item. All you have to do is drag the file or multiple files over into it and drop them in there. They won’t move anywhere, but you’ll get that tag added to all of your files. You can also right click and add tags that way.
So, once I’ve done all my processing and have all my upload assets ready to go, I’ll move it over to the next tag, which is uploads.
Right click to delete the inbox tag and then add the upload tag instead. Now when I sit down on a Friday afternoon to watch film and work on my uploads, I just click on the tag and I know exactly which files need to be uploaded.
The last part in the lifecycle of a file on my computer is to be backed up to my external hard drive. So once I’ve uploaded it, it gets that tag added and then once a month or so or when I’ve finished uploading a collection, I’ll grab all of these and copy them over to my two external hard drives and then I can safely delete them from my computer.
So those three tags help me sit down at my computer and get to work right away. And they help me keep all my files easy to hand when in reality they might be dotted across several different folders. Most importantly, they help me keep on top of my workflow. I can easily work on different parts of it on different days of the week or at different times of the day, because I know what things are in what stage I can keep on top of any bottlenecks as soon as they start to form.
Don’t forget to subscribe over on YouTube for tips like this every Wednesday, have fun, stay creative and I will see you next time!
