File naming conventions for designers 📂

v1, v2, rd3, rd4, final, final artwork, packaged, deliver, for client

Thanks to Open Peeps for the illustrations

I want to keep this guide brief, in a similar manner to my suggested folder structure, everyone has their own personal preference for how to name their files based on their workflow or specialism.

There are a two main expectations around how users view files on a computer (and specifically on MacOS), the file browser should always be set to order by NAME and should always be viewed in Columns.

I would like to offer the naming structure I currently use after 7 years of experience working with design files and projects. Hopefully this will give you a foundation to create your own naming systems and help tweak your file names to be as logical and efficient as possible.

I am happy to hear your recommendations 💬 so please reach out to me on Twitter or leave a comment wherever you find this article!

CLI0000-NameOfFile-(Optional)-YYMMDD-TA-(v01)

You will notice we never use spaces, there are niche circumstances, such as using scripts or command line and especially in web development that makes files with spaces complicated and can lead to errors. For that reason we always use dashes. I previously used underscores but on further research found they had certain limitations for SEO.

CLI000

This is our job code, as a business, every time you are opening a file it should be chargeable against a job code. Furthermore using the job code helps you align your design projects to the relevant accounts which means, as long as there is a logical system in place for managing client accounts, your projects will also fall into a nice order. If you don’t use simple job codes like above you can opt to omit the numbers and create a three letter abbreviation of your clients name ie APL, GGL, TWT, FBK.

NameOfFile

Those coming from a development background will recognise this capitalization style as PascalCase, it’s used so we can omit spaces but ensure legibility. You can name your file whatever you like, but keep it fairly short and descriptive: LogoExploration, OOHMockup, AboutUsPage.

(Optional)

We have a secondary naming space here, we can use this to include more details about the file if its likely there will be multiple versions such as artworked assets. For most day to day files we can ignore this extra information to keep things simple. Examples of secondary details could be: 300dpi, Mobile, 1920x1080, Print, Cropped, Vertical.

YYMMDD

Always, I repeat always, date your files with the date structured year > day. File systems don’t understand dates, they just see numbers, so when 31 of May rolls over to the 01 of June your files will start from the top again (if you are working with the same file name and using a column based file browser, which you should be), it’s easy to avoid this and writing the date ‘backwards’ quickly becomes second nature. Although you can of course sort by date or view the date when a file is selected, that can be time consuming when checking a lot of files (when filling out timesheets for example) and it’s much quicker to scan a whole column of dates instantly.

TA

Please include your initials. Especially on collaborative projects I cannot tell you how many times I get asked “who worked on this” or “who has the working files”. Furthermore if someone sends you a file with their initials on it you should remove them and add your own instead (or you can add your details next to theirs) if you have edited the file.

v01/r01

Finally we have our version/round marker, if there is a chance that you will save multiple versions of a file in a single day begin your first file with _v01 at the end and increment. When you begin a new day you should update the date (which will organise the files anyway) and continue from where you left off. Use 01 as opposed to just 1 as a computer will recognise 11,12 etc as higher than 2 in a chronological file browser.

PACKAGED

Or ARTWORK. On rare occasions I may append the whole file name with a label such as this in all caps. This is often the case when this is a deliverable package that should not be edited or modified and exists purely as a backup or resource to be duplicated.

Further thoughts

It may be in your interested to change the hierarchy so that the date precedes the NameOfTheFile, that way your most recent files would always appear at the bottom (or top) of a file browser sorted by name.

You may also want to include the RouteName or CampaignName before the NameOfFile. If you are at an early stage in the project whereby you have 2 or 3 routes being presented, including a small R1 or R2 before the NameOfFile can aid navigation, just don’t forget which route is which!