Organizing Reference Data and Design Assets Management skills for Designers
For designers and creators, managing daily references and stock asset images for design is one of the most important tasks.
It might be common to create folders for each project to manage assets, but when you want to look back or reuse something later, it can take a lot of time relying on a vague memory like, "Oh wait, I feel like I downloaded a material similar to this design before..."
That's why keeping all design resources, such as images, illustrations, vector materials, and PSD files, organized is essential for saving time during the creative process.
Until now, I have primarily managed data using tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, Adobe Bridge, and backup HDDs, but recently I've been using Eagle Apps as my main data management tool.
This data management tool, Eagle Apps, is incredibly user-friendly and efficient for managing and collecting design references, so let me introduce it to you today!
or more details, you can refer to Eagle's official site.
What is Eagle Apps, which can manage images, videos, and web pages all in one place?
Eagle Apps is a material management tool that can manage various design assets, such as images and videos, all in one place.
You could call it a ”design library”.
It supports a wide range of data formats, including:
Image data such as JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, WebP, HEIC
UI design data from Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD
Video data like mp4, or direct URLs from YouTube and Vimeo saved locally
Photoshop PSD files, Illustrator AI files, PDFs, PowerPoint, and Excel data
Font data
Web pages (URLs)
With Eagle Apps, you can manage everything from images and videos to fonts, all in one place!
In addition to graphic design, I also create animations, video edits, and 3D graphics.
Managing everything in one place, including images, videos, fonts, and audio materials, has made organizing my design assets data much easier.
Excellent and Convenient Features of the Design Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps
When it comes to managing assets and references, it's essential to think about "how to organize them" and "how to make them easy to find later" after downloading. Without this, managing them is meaningless.
Eagle Apps excels in this area, featuring various functions specialized for asset management, such as:
Tag Management: Add tags to saved data for easy search and organization.
Folder Hierarchy: Create subfolders within main folders to classify data in detail.
Rating System: Add a 1-5 star rating to saved data.
Direct Preview of Videos/Websites: Save URLs from YouTube or websites and view them directly in Eagle.
Automatic Color Recognition and Color Filter: Automatically detect color codes from saved data and search by color.
I’ve summarized other convenient features as well, so please use them as a reference.
Convenient Feature of the Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps 1: Tag Management
Eagle Apps allows you to add tags to saved data, making asset management efficient and organized all in one place.
For example, I downloaded photo assets from Adobe Stock to use in flyer designs and saved them in Eagle Apps.
Since Adobe Stock assets are often high quality, I distinguish them from other material sites by tagging them with "Adobe Stock."
Additionally, I added tags such as "male," "30s," and "office casual," which are keywords I used when searching. I also included the download URL.
Using Eagle Apps, I can easily manage and organize all my design assets like images, making it simpler to find what I need quickly.
It is also helpful that saved tags are displayed by folder.
This way, I can easily see at a glance how many items are assigned to each tag.
Convenient Feature of the Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps 2: Hierarchical Folder
You can further classify saved data by organizing folders into hierarchies.
For example, I manage all my fonts in a folder named "Fonts." Under this first level, I created subfolders like "Google Fonts," "Free Resources," and "Purchased Assets" to organize them more precisely.
When it comes to projects like corporate design materials, it's essential to create easily editable data even after delivery.
For this, I often use freely installable fonts like Google Fonts.
For large corporate clients who may have their own custom-developed fonts, I handle these separately as provided font data to ensure they are used exclusively for their brand.
Additionally, I manage personally purchased premium fonts in a folder labeled "Paid." This structured approach with folder hierarchies allows for efficient production.
While it's possible to create further subfolders within the second level, such as third or fourth levels, I find that going too deep can sometimes lead to confusion.
Typically, organizing up to the third level is sufficient for effective management.
Convenient Feature of the Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps 3: Rating System
In Eagle Apps, you can assign a 5-star rating to saved data.
For instance, you can give a 5-star rating to frequently used design resources or rate data saved as references based on your personal judgment.
This allows for searching data by rating criteria.
Collecting references can be done on platforms like Pinterest or Dribbble, but Eagle Apps is particularly useful when you want to visualize and categorize your favorite items by rating.
Additionally, for data like PDFs or images that cannot be saved on Pinterest due to restricted settings, Eagle allows you to save them locally for personal reference.
It's ideal when you want to keep your collected reference data private and managed in one place, rather than across multiple tools like Pinterest or Dribbble.
Convenient Feature of the Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps 4: Direct Preview of Videos/Web Pages
One of the features that particularly impressed me when using Eagle Apps personally.
While you can save images locally or with other tools, managing videos or web pages often requires accessing the original resource data for playback.
Eagle Apps allows you to preview and play videos or web pages directly by simply copying and pasting the URL!
For example, if there's a YouTube video you want to reference, copy the video URL and paste it into Eagle Apps.
The YouTube video will then be displayed directly within Eagle, showing details like the video title, color palette, and URL automatically.
When you copy and save a URL to Eagle Apps, it doesn't mean you're saving the actual video itself, but you can directly click and play it within Eagle.
Similarly, for web pages, if there's a page you want to save in Eagle, you can simply copy and paste the URL to view it in Eagle Apps.
Eagle Apps' feature "Marcador Web"
With Eagle's feature called "Marcador web," you can collect and visually organize web pages as references, allowing you to view them directly within Eagle.
This makes it easy to visually and efficiently collect web page references without needing to bookmark them separately.
When gathering reference videos, platforms like Pinterest require navigating to YouTube to view them, while YouTube itself limits organization to playlists.
On the other hand, Eagle Apps allows you to seamlessly play and organize reference videos.
You can add color palettes, tags, and ratings to make them easier to search through. This feature makes Eagle incredibly useful for organizing reference videos efficiently.
Convenient Feature of the Asset Management Tool Eagle Apps 5: Automatic Color Recognition and Color Filters
The fifth feature is automatic color recognition and color filters.
When you save videos or images in Eagle Apps, it automatically detects the colors used and creates a color palette.
Moreover, you can simply hover over these colors to view the color codes!
I'm saving illustration materials in Eagle, and I find it very convenient and user-friendly when I need to retrieve the color codes used in the materials.
Additionally, the color filter feature is also handy.
It allows me to narrow down searches by color (color filtering) for data saved in Eagle, organized by folder.
You can specify color codes if you like, but what's really great is that you can intuitively narrow down searches by colors you visually select from the color palette.
This feature makes it excellent for searching through large quantities of saved stock materials or reference images based on colors intuitively.
Eagle Apps: One-time Purchase for Eagle's Design Asset Management Tool!
Eagle Apps offers a variety of useful features, and unlike subscription-based services such as Dropbox or Google Drive, it's available for a one-time purchase.
As of June 2024, the price is $29.95 USD.
Honestly, I would have thought it was a subscription service, haha! Having all these features and being able to use it for under $30 is an amazing deal.
You can get Eagle Apps from their website!
Perpetual License with Free Updates
Eagle Apps allows for a perpetual license with free updates, supporting up to 2 registered devices, making it suitable for both your main PC and secondary notebook. It's compatible with both Windows and macOS.
With a perpetual license, you can enjoy updates without any additional costs after the initial purchase.
Additionally, there's a 30% discount available for students and educators!
For designers and creators looking to efficiently manage their design assets and references in one place, Eagle Apps is highly recommended.
Stay tuned for more tips on useful features and practical uses of Eagle Apps!
If you have any recommended methods for data management, design asset management, or collecting references, feel free to share :)
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