Recently on Twitter I’ve been posting short tips and tricks on various ways to become a better designer by setting up your computer and using various programs to their full advantage.
Below are various techniques I use to keep my computer organized, accessible and favorable that help me be more effective, proficient and more informed designer.
Tweetdeck, Tweetdeck, Tweetdeck
Sure Tweetie looks slick and pretty, but you can’t underestimate the power of Tweetdeck….
Want to find new high quality fonts? Try setting up a search with the keywords ‘free font.’ If your interested in a particular subject of graphic design, such as typography, set up a search and keep an eye on the pulse of information that passes through.
Also, I have a group called “Top Twits” on my Tweetdeck that I organize some of my favorite designers and people into. This allows me to eliminate more chatty banter and focus more on what I want. Also, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch both groups and searches will sync up and stay current whenever you make changes if you have the iPhone/Touch app.
Find more Tweetin’ designers to follow here.
Folder-ize your bookmarks
Ok, so now you have your Tweetdeck set up and you’re catching loads of great information and links. Sure you might not need 600 free design icons right now, but at some point you will… and what better way to access them quickly is keep your bookmarks organized.
Have a look at my bookmarks folders below and start organizing and collecting. The next time you need logo inspiration or looking for beautiful grid systems you have them at your finger tips.
Also, try using Xmarks to keep all of your bookmarks synced and up-to-date across browsers and computers.
Keep an inspirational photo album
Besides bookmarking useful links, I also find web imagery that I like to collect for future inspiration. Try using Evernote, – also has Firefox plugin – Little Snapper or iPhoto (if you’re using a Mac). Create albums/groups and keep them organized.
Organize your fonts
I cannot stress enough how much time this will save you in the long run… organize your typefaces!
How many times have you sifted through thousands of fonts try to find that perfect san serif, while passing by scripts, serifs, etc? Try creating groups such as:
» sans
» serifs
» scripts
» blackletter
» decorative
» grunge
» playful/handwritten
» slant
» slab
» symbols and icons
» headline
» even organize by foundry!
» web
Create template folders to keep clients organized
If you don’t already keep your files and clients organized then now is the time to start. I created a base ‘client template folder’ that has nested folders inside so I’m ready to start adding files and documentation to it as work comes through. Have a look at mine below:
*If you can’t read the above the folders are organized by the following: deliverables, fonts, images, inspiration, invoices, project files, project worksheet (questionnaire responses), quote, terms and agreement.
I then keep my client folders inside a main folder dated by the year.
Create document templates
Hate having to write out proposals or send out quotes? You can simplify the process and spend more time designing if you create a base terms of agreement, invoice, etc. Just plug in the necessary information and charge the little bit you required and your ready to send it out.
Make it easy to move around
Laptops aren’t just good enough these days. It’s all about the cloud computing and it’s time to take advantage of it as a designer.
I am a huge fan and daily user of Dropbox. It allows me to work on my desktop – for example – and quickly move files across computers to my laptop. It also makes it easy to share large files and folders with clients. This app will definitely help with proficiency.
Organize your mailbox
This helps me out in a big way, especially with all the emails I receive from my readers, clients, etc. Try creating client folders and drag your emails from each client into the right folder. This will help in referencing them later.
Tip: If you’re on a Mac, create smart mailboxes for automatic organization.
Subscribe to blogs using a good aggregator
In a previous article I posted 16 tips on how to become a better designer and one of them was read and subscribe to design blogs.
Besides finding valuable information on Twitter to bookmark, try subscribing to the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs using a good aggregator, such as Google Reader. This will help you stay up-to-date with what’s happen in the design community (which is a really important aspect of improving your skills).
**As a treat here is my OPML (?) files of my 300 blogs I subscribe to, so feel free to download it and import into your Reader! Go knock yourself out and read away! 
What are some of the ways you organize your computer in order to be a more effective and proficient designer?
Hey, you stole my “Free Fonts” technique! :-p
Excellent post, as usual.
Nice stuff! I wish I were half as organized!
I have recently discovered the magic of tweet deck in finding topics that I am looking for. I recently set up a couple of filters to find “graphic designer needed” “#logodesign” and a couple others. It’s amazing what great resources and work opportunities might come your way by using tweetdeck that way.
Thanks for the post, Brian.
Totally just stole your client folder template.
Thanks!
Fantastic article, Brian! It’s so easy to get caught up in day to day work and let things become piled up and a little unorganized. Reading this has inspired to block off some time tomorrow to clean everything up a bit.
Love your post. I’m already doing most of this stuff(and more) but got some valuable new tips.
Thanks!
Ever considered using Delicious (there is plugin for virtually every browser out there) with tagging instead of folder-ized bookmarks and Laterloop for “Saved for later”?
How neat and tidy! Love it, hope to organize like this real soooon! And TweetDeck is awsome…
Excellent post Behoff,tweet deck is a powerful app that you can get all you need ,and i really love Xmark for FireFox
This post was very interesting and useful.
Dropbox is very useful. Now i’m trying to use dropbox with svn to backup repository of my sites. I’ven’t tried yet to deploy site via svn
the tweetdeck tricks is awesome.
keep up the good job!
silly.bear
Very interesting post.
I am of the opinion that to survive online you need to be very well organised. I have just had a massive clean up and feel revitalized now that my desktop only has several icons on it. All of the other clutter is contained within!
I signed up for Evernote yesterday. This is the second time I have seen it mentioned in two days. I haven’t had a proper look at it yet, but I hope to later on today.
Dropbox is new to me and it looks like an interesting prospect, thanks for the heads up on that.
I love the idea of the template folder for your clients, I just have images, ready to send, and versions, but your idea is better, and also for the bookmarks, i have a lot of folders but i could have even more if I try to order by specific subjects like instead of blogs, I could have, graphic design, marketing, animation, web design etc..
Great post, you always have something interesting to share with others designer
It’s very good article! Thank you.
Really very useful post. Congrats¡
The Template folder for your clients really helps when it’s structured the way you have shown. Great Article!
Thanks for sharing, good advice.
tashfeen.
It initially takes some time to setup but trust me it’s well worth it in the end.
Preston,
Great point you brought up here – you can even try setting up keywords of people looking for design work and pick up more clients. Thanks for sharing!
Isaiah,
Steal away my friend
Mariusz,
For awhile I used to use delicious, but I’ve found storing the bookmarks and accessing them directly on my browswer was a much more faster and better option. Feel like I have more control over them, plus if you’re using Firefox it allows you to tag them with keywords as well.
Thanks for the smart mailbox info. I need to tame that beast I call an inbox (6000+ and growing).
Stephen,
It’s always good to be organized no matter online or off, but as a graphic designer and dealing with tons of computer files it’s essential. Especially since we are in a field where time is money, it helps to be as proficient as possible and your clients will also thank you for it.
Brian, Great Post…great advice.
Thanks,
Jason
Organizing is like a part time job. Whooo, just thinking about all those bookmarks I haven’t even looked at since I bookmarked them. Don’t even talk about defrag, or my folders, they always seem to end up duplicated on my desktop.. sigh
Great post! I’ll definitely be putting some of these tips into effect asap.
I like to use delicious to organize my bookmarks. I’ve never tried Xmarks, but it looks like a good system too. I find it virtually impossible to keep my bookmarks organized without something like that.
I can’t believe I never thought to organize my fonts according to style. I love all the other organization tips too. It’s going to take me awhile to get all sorted out, but I’m loving these suggestions.
sweet! i wish i could be half as organized.. thanks for the tips, will have to implement that
I’m with you on the tweetdeck thing man. Appreciate the OPML file as well.
I used to use a favourites setup like yours for bookmarks but it became so large and filled with so many categories I couldn’t wade through it anymore. Probably need to spend a few hours revitalising it and resorting. Might discover a few old gems!
Thanks for this helpful post.
Great post! I am going to organize my fonts Tonight!
I use Evernote just like your bookmaking idea. This way I can copy bookmarks, clip inspiration, and create todo lists from great ideas like your font suggestion. Ahhhhh if evernote had long hair and pretty eyes I would marry her.
Thanks for such an amazing article! I’m not very organized at all so this is actually ridiculously helpful.
I’ll try to implement these tips for my own design business.
Tweetdeck is great and all, but syncing between the iphone and your desktop has been very hit-and-miss for me. Maybe it’s better on a Mac?
Amazingly helpful & informative post. I greatly appreciate the detail you went into about every part of your organization. I struggle with using what’s helpful & what’s popular. They are not always the same. I love the tip about organizing emails. Thank you so much!
Excellent review! Thanks!
doesnt get better dude .. excellent tips .. could relate to few .. n get inspired from t rest
Just got around to reading this because Im not as organized as you. Many thanks for sharing the excellent tips. Im improving and learning everyday because of people like you. -Jeff
All good advice. Another good suggestion is to install quicksilver. It has really helped me speed up the way I interact with OSX.
Late to the game here, but I just wanted to say what a great post this is. Thanks for providing step-by-step instructions and examples. Nice work as usual, Brian!
haha soo true! I am very unorganized so when it is time to create a website I usually take a while finding files I would like to use
I find monitter just as useful as tweetdeck.
Seesmic appears to be similar to TweetDeck. However, both drop some tweets, which is problematic.
thanks for the post very helpful -
I can never agree more when it comes to organizing bookmarks in folders and sub-folders accompanied with tags and labels. It saves time and increases productivity especially when you have hundreds of bookmarks.
Xmarks is a good application to backup and sync your bookmarks across multiple platforms.
Great Post. Thank you.
As a fellow designer, I thought that everyone knew about organization techniques to keep everything in order. It is always surprising to me to hear about other designers who just don’t get ti, or that this is news.
GREAT post! I am in the process of really organizing things and will be using, stealing, personalizing all of the great ideas you listed. Thanks Brian!
A Dropbox alternative (and I LOVE Dropbox) is SugarSync. It allows you to Sync ANY folder on your computer. That can come in handy as well.
Anyway, great post… now onto organizing fonts and bookmarks… dear god…
Thanks for the tip re the “template client box” - I am going to use that now! Keep up the good work.
Here is another good site for collecting images off the web: http://vi.sualize.us
Just worry about the eventual size of your “unsorted bookmarks” folder
Nice Tips. ur bookmarks are very well organized!
Nice Article
How do you access the opml? its all in code
Great content!Really useful tips. Thanks for posting.
Very good! Being organized is the key.
But your bookmarks look so extensive!
I always organize mine as a few folders and then I have folders inside folders. But I realize I’m rarely using them since Firefox awesome tool bar. I guess it’s time to reorganize.
Thanks Brian! I just found that you are featured in HOW magazine as one of the top 10 design blog. I am not sure if this is old news but thought I should let you know
http://howdesign.com/top10sitesfordesigners/
I know for myself I have to separate the time I spend searching Sm and working on jobs. Jumping between the two is rough. I like to set certain time to work and illustrate and an hour here n there jumping through what I need. Everything you listed are great ideas.
Thanks for the article Brian - I read it a while ago and am quite pleased that having stumbled upon it again I’m actually still using plenty of the tips! Testament to their usefulness no doubt.
Great post. I am curious to know if you use a font software manager to activate/organize fonts? I find that I have tons of fonts on my computer and am trying to figure out a good way to deal with them all.
Larissa,
I use Suitcase Fusion 2 to organize my fonts and highly recommend it. What’s nice about it is that it automatically turns on fonts when you need them and turns them back off automatically when you close the project to keep your system running up to speed.
@Brian @larissa
I use Linotype Font Explorer (about the same thing Brian uses) and I like it. Brian makes so many good points on how to get organized. Fonts are a HUGE one especially if you are trying to find, edit and delete.
I use little snapper to keep all my web inspiration in one place. The app is amazing and can run in the background. I like it because you can categorize them inside of app and keeps your inspiration gallery nice and neat.
very nice, i’m gonna use this for sure, keep the good work on
Fantastic post! I have already booked marked this under the folder “Awesome”.
A mix between folder-izing your bookmarks and using a Feed Aggregator, a couple weeks ago I organized the feeds I subscribe to into folders and it has changed my day considerably! I am able to get through my new stories easier and am now missing less.
Depending on what youre into, will determine how you organize it, but as an example — mine are organized in the following folders:
Local, Music, Humor, Designers, Designy Stuff, Blogging, Freelancing, Movies
Awesome post Brian. Love how TweetDeck is the first thing mentioned! Organization is such a key to being efficient. Especially for people like us who spend 99% of their time at our desk…
Love the tips for organizing an increasingly overwhelming supply of information is always helpful. It is as if I have found I had a walk in closet I didn’t know I had. Thank you!
Awesome read! I use something similar to dropbox but they are for sure a time saver! They make the thumb drive “things of the past!” and dang your so organize! I need to work on my organization skills
This is great advice, thanks for sharing.
Really very great post, will help most of the designers to become better in their work..
Thanks for posting
Very nice and useful article.
Thanks for the OPML file. That’s a big help!
Organise, organise and orgarnise! Certainly valid for most jobs one can do. Great article!
absolutely beyond in love with this post, after finally taking the time to read the whole thing of course… ugh thanks Brian! seriously!
I already use everything you have listed as well as my intranet, and has anyone else here tried feedly? great for organizing feeds on Firefox via google reader… All RSS magazine style..
Thanks for the post. There is really a lot of valuable info here. I really like the idea of organizing the fonts into different categories and bookmarks. I often find myself looking for something that I know I saved but can’t find it because it is not where it is suppose to be.
Emina
Again….Great write up. Sometimes I find myself being lazy and forget to organize my bookmarks. I like your idea of saving inspirational bookmarks as well.
Hey Brian, great Article. But I am wondering how you manage to read 300 blogs at the same time. Do you just randomly go through or do you have a system?
Patrick,
It’s like when you read a newspaper… there are hundreds of articles each day in the paper, but instead of reading them all, you scan the titles and pick out what’s interesting. So even though I subscribe to 300 blogs and, lets say 200 new articles a day, I’m only reading probably a third of them that interest me. The others I ’star’ in google reader and read later.
Thanks! What a great article, and I totally took advantage of your OPML file.
Keep’em comin.
Cheers~