Layers when Designing

[Martee]

What do you do with your layers when you're designing a piece of work? Do you name them all appropriately and sort them out in folders that resembles chronic OCD or do you just let them lurk around where ever they feel like?

For myself, I tend to differ dependant upon the design I am doing. If it is a design which has alot of 'areas' I will use folders and neatly stack them but if it i something simple I'll just let them sit wherever .

I am horrible for naming them correctly though!

 

[xpl0iter]

I rarely do the design work, but when I do, I used to name them correctly. Naming the layers is good idea if you having lots of layers. Otherwise you're going to waste a lot of time imo!

 

[Brentnauer]

I mostly do simple graphic and logo stuff, but even then my layers HAVE to be in some kind of logical order...

^^ This one, for example, has a layer structure like this:

1. Tagline
2. Curious
3. Cosmos
4. Background

If you're layers aren't in order, you're gonna have a bad time.

 

[flame]

I tend to just let them fall where they may - when I am in the middle of designing something I am likely to have half a dozen separate pieces open with each one having any number of layers and I move between them copying and pasting and altering as I go until I have the final thing which I will save as both layers and a flat image.

 

[dojo]

Used to not care, but when I had to look for one specific layer, it would take a lot of time. My designs for the clients have tens or even a hundred layers (depending on the complexity of the work), so I found that grouping them and naming them appropriately, while takes a little time when I do it, saves a lot of time when I later manage the design.

 

[pathankp]

i create a sperate folders and named them as i think this is the Professional way to create a Design.

 

[Southern Comfort]

Depends on the design. If it is a signature I don't really care and just keep going (I'll still add folders if necessary though). Logo work and theme work are different. I group everything into folders, I learned that the hard way when making a tutorial the other day haha. I name them really fast and simple, some don't make sense half the time but they do to me. A bigger question does anyone color code their groups and layers? I've actually never used the feature before and I don't really see a need to do it.

 

[Ghost]

Naming the layers and grouping them will save a lot of time on big projects. For small things it does no matter. However, with full on websites you are going to have to hide layers, remove layers, and edit them and going through dozens of layers to figure out what they are is very annoying. Always label them. Use groups where appropriate (for example, you may but all the menu's layers in a group called Menu).

 

[Martee]

I have a become a regimented folder man when I design in Photoshop now. Even tiny boring things with more than 3-4 layers get grouped into a folder by me now for some reason. I'm working on a poster for a local charity currently and I have like 7-8 folders for a piece of work that probably doesn't require it, haha.

 

[Sylar]

What do you do with your layers when you're designing a piece of work? Do you name them all appropriately and sort them out in folders that resembles chronic OCD or do you just let them lurk around where ever they feel like?

For myself, I tend to differ dependant upon the design I am doing. If it is a design which has alot of 'areas' I will use folders and neatly stack them but if it i something simple I'll just let them sit wherever .

I am horrible for naming them correctly though!

I do a bit of the same. I'm pretty OCD when I design certain things(fucking insane amount of folders, no lie), but other designs just get to have the layers chillax wherever I end up throwing them

 

[Ghost]

My latest avatar is pretty relaxed haha. No layers are named, but there is one group.

It's really important for large designs, but not things like this which is just some objects and text

 

[Southern Comfort]

My latest avatar is pretty relaxed haha. No layers are named, but there is one group.

It's really important for large designs, but not things like this which is just some objects and text

I like that.

Something like that I don't think you'd need several group. As you said it is very important for large designs, but for something like an avatar it usually isn't necessary.

 

[Martee]

It would be for me. I'd go nuts.
The body would be one folder, the arms another folder as with the head. Then the eyes would be one folder and the laser things out of it another. Thats how I now think. ><

 

[Gytix]

It would be for me. I'd go nuts.
The body would be one folder, the arms another folder as with the head. Then the eyes would be one folder and the laser things out of it another. Thats how I now think. ><

Bro, you are a weirdo. I just open a new folder, and through some brushes and shapes in.. although it usually comes out looking shit.. so maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 

[lowrider.STi]

In most cases I name them, but if the design I'm working on is something simple, I leave it with the default name.

 

[OhioTom76]

I try to keep them as organized as possible, but I've also found that you can shoot yourself in the foot by creating too many groupings in an effort to be organized. In doing so you can actually make your layout a lot more cumbersome to work with, by constantly having to keep drilling down into very granular groups. Sometimes I just use common naming conventions instead for the layers, such as shared prefixes, rather than putting them each into separate groups.