How to file incoming graphics?

[Maxie]

Our incoming graphics is a bit of a mess, how do you file yours?
We can have up to 50 incoming graphics files waiting to be worked on.
Usually what happens is that the sales team get graphics from a customer inorder to quote for a job.
They might send it to the graphics dept to get an opinion on how it should be printed, how many colors etc.
Once they have quoted they will send it to graphics to work on it with an order, it's now in the email the graphics received.
It can take a week or two until the graphics dept work on it, they have to look for the email they received
inorder to find it.
Once they work on it we have a filing system but we have a bit of a mess until a designer actually works on the graphics.
Would appreciate suggestions to improve this system.

[mt_signex]

You could probably just re-structure your filing system a bit and start saving all attachments, etc when they arrive the first time instead of waiting for the input.  I have folders for larger repeat customers but for the most part I just have different design folders (disk folders, not actual files) so if i get a new job its located in SignEx -> T-Shirts -> 20160606-New Job, each year I move all of the "2016xxxx" folders into "2016" to clear them out of the working directory, but still organized.  I date my folders in this way so they are sorted by date without sorting by date, so it's easy to pull an invoice and then go find the art files.

I will normally create a folder called "design elements" or "working files" inside the folder to store all of the customer provided graphics that are used for reference, etc before doing the final design work.

Hope it helps.

[mimosatexas]

Every client gets a folder, then individual job folders within those, and in each job folder i have a folder for assets, proofs/mockups/drafts, and finished output files.  quick, simple, easy.

[Sbrem]

Every client gets a folder, then individual job folders within those, and in each job folder i have a folder for assets, proofs/mockups/drafts, and finished output files.  quick, simple, easy.

Pretty much this, plus we archive annually...

Steve

[Inkworks]

Every client gets a folder, then individual job folders within those, and in each job folder i have a folder for assets, proofs/mockups/drafts, and finished output files.  quick, simple, easy.

Bingo, we have a very similar file tree layout.