Artwork File System Layout

On several occasions at Foote and Flame, I would have a customer call me or drop in asking for a replacement item, or to make something similar to the one they already had. On each occasion, I pleasantly surprised them by being able to locate the artwork from their past order, even though it was years later, within a matter of 60 seconds.

How do you do this?

File storage hygiene

This one is a balance of allowing both a human and a computer to efficiently store and find files.

So how did we do it at Foote and Flame?

Each order had a series of items - each item corresponds to a unique item that we make for that customer. Given each item was unique, it got it's own artwork folder just for that item. Using the database, we could look up a customer, their orders, and then the items that belong to those orders.

Each item had a numeric ID number. We used this ID to create the folder name. So for example, for item ID 11142, the folder path would look like this:

• Items
  • 010000
    • 011000-012000
      • 011100-011199
        • 011142 - Item Description

That seems complicated, right? Well, yes... but this is where sometimes you have to work with the computer.

With this structure, each folder contained up to 100 items. Why was this important? When you're storing 50,000 items, you can't have them all in a single folder - especially with cloud storage - as it takes a long time to download the whole list. Instead, every subfolder has 100 entries in it - meaning that you can quickly enter each folder and download just that 100 folder listing.

This is when you combine "how computers work" with "how can I make my work more efficient".

This "simple trick" allowed us to quickly locate customer files within seconds.

Automation

Where this really shines is automation.

• When an order was placed, the item folder was automatically created. No manual errors.
• It's faster for the computer to navigate through these nested folders.
• Your other automations can use this structure to quickly work out where files are.

This is a blend of computer science and human science.

Confused?

Totally understand. I've had a few blank faces when I've explained this before. But that's what I'm here for - to bridge the gap between what the computer does well, and your processes, to make them fast and trouble free for you.