File management best practices for medical illustrators & animators

On this page

• Every project gets a code
• The folder name should tell you what’s inside
• Inside each project: the same pipeline
• Filenames carry the project code every time
• Feedback gets tracked
• Download template

Imagine this: a client you’ve worked with for more than five years sends an email asking for all of their projects to be rebranded. Thirty-something files, some illustrations, some booklets, some buried in a 2021 folder you haven’t touched since the day you sent it off.

How fast can you find everything?

If I told you I’ve had perfect file habits since grad school, I’d be lying. The messiest folder on my computer is still Downloads.

But when it comes to project files, the V.7 sketch we may need to re-open three years from now, we rely on a system we’ve tried to perfect over the years.

Every project gets a code

First, we start at the highest level: the project code.

At BioHues, every project is tagged with a 3-letter + 3-digit code. The letters come from the client’s name, while the digits tell us this is the Nth project we’ve done with them. That code lives everywhere the project does: local folders, cloud folders, scope documents, invoices, team messages, Notion pages. If something is searchable, the code is searchable too.

Six years in, this is one of the most important habits we’ve built.

The folder name should tell you what’s inside

Next, there is a descriptive project name to go after the project code. The name should tell me what type of project deliverable it is: illustration? Animation? Or a slide deck? Whenever I can, I borrow the wording straight from the client’s early emails. That way, the name makes sense to both sides, and the project code can be a short form only our internal team messages each other with.

Inside each project: the same pipeline

Every project folder gets the same internal structure. The exact subfolders vary by project type, but the hierarchy is consistent:

Documents: quotes, proposals, invoices, signed NDAs.

References: what the client sends us, plus the journal papers and creative inspiration we gather.

Working files: sketches, colour passes, 3D assets, narration takes. Subfolders here are numbered (01_, 02_, 03_) so the production stage is super clear. The reason production files deserve their own folder is so the whole thing can be zipped and transferred without breaking a single file link.

Delivery: versioned, renamed, compressed, ready for review (this is also where I go look first if a client asks for a file several years later because they lost theirs).

Feedback: lives on Notion (more on this in a second).

Filenames carry the project code every time

When anything leaves the studio for the client’s inbox, the filename follows one rule: project code + descriptive name + version.

So: EMO014_mechanism_animation_v3.mp4. Not final_FINAL_v3_revised_new.mp4. (We’ve all been there. We don’t go back there.)

Because the code lives in the filename, every email that has ever touched the project becomes searchable in a single keystroke. This may not seem important in the beginning, but files WILL become cluttered before you even notice how much time has passed.

Feedback gets tracked 

When client feedback arrives, we create a Notion page titled “Client feedback — vX” inside that project’s workspace. The original email, the marked-up images, the Wipster annotation link… they all land here. Then each note becomes a to-do item, gets ticked off in the next version, and stays visible to the whole team.

Download template

This year marks BioHues Digital’s 6th birthday. That’s a lot of files, and a lot of clients trusting us to keep their work safe, recoverable, and editable on demand. A future post will dig into the cloud storage options we’ve explored, including a feature comparison, pricing options, and what we chose to use.

For now, if you’d like a head start, download our pre-made project folder structure below. Drop it onto any new job and you’re 90% of the way there.

Your future self will thank you.

About the author

Nancy Chu Ji is Co-founder and Director of BioHues Digital. With 8 years of experience in biomedical communications, she combines scientific expertise with visual storytelling to create engaging educational and marketing content for the health sector. Nancy has partnered with leading organizations including Tencent, ByteDance, Edwards Lifesciences, and Emory Healthcare, helping them drive impact through the effective use of medical visualization. Nancy is also Treasurer of the Association of Medical Illustrators and a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto.