Digital asset management (DAM) software may sound like something that’s designed for administrative or managerial roles. In some ways that’s true – it helps with the organisation and storage of important assets, which is invaluable to the running of a company.
However, it’s also a powerful tool for the other side of a business – the creatives. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how DAM can help people thrive in creative roles.
There might by two ‘I’s in creativity, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that’s achieved alone. In truth, collaboration is the key to most creative work. That could be multiple people with the same specialism working together, or copywriters, photographers and graphic designers all collaborating as one on a marketing project, for example.
Whatever the case, those people need to be connected with access to each other’s work and ideas. DAM software makes this quick and easy with a flexible security model that can grant access to individual folders or files. You can even restrict access to items while they’re being edited to avoid any crossed wires in the collaboration process.
Whether you’re an architect, animator or fashion designer, all creatives will agree that the first draft is never perfect. Often it takes several passes, drafts or reruns of a project to get it right. That includes plenty of back-and-forths with colleagues, third parties and clients.
The result is several versions of a single asset, all of which could be useful at some point. You don’t want to hear “can we go back to the previous version?” if the version in question has been overwritten.
With sophisticated metadata and potentially infinite storage in the cloud, DAM provides the space and functionality you need to store as many versions as required. Multiple versions of a file can be created automatically in various formats, with all assets retrievable using keywords or other metadata.
No two creative projects are the same. But when you’re working as part of a business or other organisation, you’re likely to have a number of preferences, rules or style guidelines to make sure the end result is fit for purpose. That could be specific dimensions for images, tone of voice for content or an overriding creative direction more broadly.
Unfortunately, this isn’t something you can simply remember. Brands are by no means stationary, and there’s always the possibility that the direction can change. In simple terms, creatives need access to the latest brand guidelines to ensure their work stays on brand.
Having your brand guidelines easily accessible in a central repository is the key to keeping everyone on the same page, especially when it comes to creative work.
Whether you’re a creative yourself or you just want to maximise productivity for the creatives in your organisation, iBase is on hand to help with our feature-rich DAM software. Contact our team today to arrange a free one-to-one demo.
