Organizing Your Resouces

[Six]

Similar to this thread (click here) do you organize your graphic resources? And what is your thought process behind organizing them if you do?

I know a lot of people don't even save any resources on their computer (or an external harddrive) and they just use google each time they make a new piece of art. While the thought process behind this is refreshing (you have less chance ending up using the same resources over and over) it seems a bit too wild for me. I like having some staple items in my Photoshop folder.

Some people organize their resources (usually resource packs) by creator. DeviantArt artists for example. If you do, why do you choose to do this? I personally look through packs and I delete everything that I for sure know I wouldn't use. I don't like having too much clutter.

Now, I know most people don't... but do you sometimes end up deleting your complete resource library just to have a fresh start? I do! I'm considering doing it again and cleaning up my 'shop folder!

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Mitsuki]

Ever since my PC crashed last year (along with my hard drive...) my motivation for GFX has dropped really low. Granted, I was taking graphics design-related classes at the time too, but as far as signatures and resources go, I just can't find the reason to start organizing resources again. That doesn't mean I don't have some resources on my current drive though! I do, but a copy/paste from my Dropbox. Only C4D resources. I don't even use 90% of them, so I'm not sure why I'm still hanging on to them.

In my dropbox, I have 5 texture resources and maybe 10 C4Ds.

I used to be on top of my game back in the days though.

 

[Galadín]

I haven't added much to my treasure trove of resources lately since I'm content with the mix that I have. There's some tried and tested ones in there (not as tested as that certain texture I keep seeing Six ) and then there's some that are just waiting for their moment. I tend to download packs rather than single resources as I find them a bit more useful in creating thematic work (e.g. a series of signatures for tournament prizes, banners for recurring events, etc.). The reason I would organise them by artist is simply because one day, I want to do up a proper "thank you" as credit for all those wonderful designers. By having the names on each of their own core folder, I'll also know what kind of resource I get from each so on the chance that a piece isn't working, I have a visual phone book to look through - so I can have a "something like that but not that exact one" moment.

I'm pretty exacting when organising my Graphics Folder (entire laptop really) so I wouldn't really need to "spring clean". Having said that, if I notice a particular texture pack lying around or set of C4Ds which haven't been used since cave man days, then I'll delete it. I like to off-load my complete works to an external drive though. One can get a bit sick looking at their older works every time they have to save a shiny new one.

If I were to do a fresh new start, it would be with my fonts library. Yes, definitely that. I have no concept how so many crappy fonts were allowed to call my laptop home. I was such a silly billy back then!

 

[The Witch]

Ever since my PC crashed last year (along with my hard drive...) my motivation for GFX has dropped really low. Granted, I was taking graphics design-related classes at the time too, but as far as signatures and resources go, I just can't find the reason to start organizing resources again. That doesn't mean I don't have some resources on my current drive though! I do, but a copy/paste from my Dropbox. Only C4D resources. I don't even use 90% of them, so I'm not sure why I'm still hanging on to them.

In my dropbox, I have 5 texture resources and maybe 10 C4Ds.

I used to be on top of my game back in the days though.

are you me, mits?

that's identical to my situation. ever since i lost my hard-drive a few years ago I just can't get my resources together. My computer doesn't have that much space on it so I've never bothered to gather up resources again out of fear I run out of space but the few things I do have are in a big messy folder that makes it very difficult to navigate, which makes me frustrated to even attempt doing graphic-design.

I really need to organize it all but I just don't see the point if I can only keep a few hundred resources on my comp at once.

 

[Six]

My current one is a mess, I tend to grab the resources that I like, which are very few because of a select style I tend to go for these days. I really should sort it out and go hunting for some new resources. I just don't PhotoShop that much these days, and signature shops aren't that high in demand.

 

[Miko]

I don't usually sort by packs or anything, mostly because I don't really download packs? I think I have one or two sorted that way, but that's because that's how they came and I haven't moved them yet. A lot of my stuff is sorted based on the types of images that they are, such as 'Grunge Distress', 'Watercolor', 'Parchment', 'Metals', etc. A lot of stuff gets dropped into an 'Overlay' folder which is really just an unsorted pile of stuff I have to sort through, but because my folder is kind of new I haven't had a huge need to sort it.

My old folder I used to have from my prior job I left a few years ago grew this way. It would all start off in a 'Stock' thread until I would have an abundance of a certain type, such as 'Galaxy' where I'd toss all the space/star themed images in that folder until I had an abundance of another type such as 'Wood' for all my wood textures and stock images. I don't need most of this stuff anymore, so it's all kind of sorted (poorly, because of how I left my job) in its own contained resource folder, but because I find myself needing to go through it from time to time it really makes me want to pull out all the ones I can see myself using and just move it over to my current one. It's a colossal mess though and will take a while, which is probably why I haven't done it and now have two resources folders instead of one modified one.

Oh! But I also have a folder dedicated to Actions, Brushes, Gradients, Patterns & Templates of course. This is also seldom used, but because they've been made and/or tailored to myself and how I work I find them very valuable, especially when I do need them. Or maybe I just treasure them because I made most of them myself, I don't know