Many designers will work on their own PSD’s and then pass these onto other designers. Due to this it is a good idea to keep your files organised, clean and maintainable so the person working on your PSD can productively complete their task in your absence.

So what is a good way of doing this?

The first approach is to keep your project files organised. For every project you should only need a maximum of three folders; 1. PSD Files 2. HTML Files 3. Client Info Files. These three files are quite explanatory however I will quickly mention the elements that can be contained within.

1. PSD
Contains client logo’s (within its own folder), client print work (within its own folder) and the project PSD’s.

2. HTML
Contains any html previews and the development site. If you have a project that has both a development and a live version then I would recommend keeping these completely seperate.

3. Client Info File
Contains the project information, client brief and any similar document files that may have been supplied by the client.

When working with Photoshop there are many small factors which will help to keep your work organised. The main element is to name layers. We all know this is a very time consuming job as the designer knows the exact position of every layer and which elements act as the mouse over’s. However, to a new designer the layers palette will appear to be a maze of layers and time will be needed to familiarise themselves with how the project has been developed.

A good idea to adopt is to name the layers in small case and when grouping the layers to name the groups in Uppercase. This difference will help to clearly distinguish the difference between layers and groups.

Group your layers!
It is a good idea to group your layers as again this will have a huge impact on the whole organisation of the PSD. The best way to group the layers is to adopt the ‘build of the website’. For instance, group all elements of the header together. Group all elements of the menu items together. Continue this approach throughout the PSD to other elements such as the content and left or right menu items and the overall organisation of your project will be massively improved.