c/design-workflow-hacks

Question about a font file that crashed my whole presentation

I was setting up a pitch in a coffee shop on Tuesday and my slides froze because of a custom font I'd just installed... I had to switch to a system font in 5 minutes before the meeting started. Has anyone else had a font just break a file like that?

Just realized my 'quick' Figma component edits were costing me hours after a project manager asked why a button style changed in 12 files.

I started making a master component library in a separate file last month, and linking everything from there, which cut my update time from maybe 45 minutes to under five for those kinds of global changes.

I started naming my Photoshop layers after what they do, not what they are.

For years my files were a mess with names like 'Rectangle 1 copy', but last month I forced myself to use 'Main Button Active' and 'Header Shadow'. Finding things went from a 5 minute hunt to under 30 seconds. Has anyone else tried this and found other naming tricks that help?

I finally figured out why my client feedback loops were taking three weeks.

I used to send over a full PDF deck for every single round, but a client in Austin just sent back a marked-up screenshot from her phone with the note 'can we just do this next time?'. Now I use a simple cloud link for live comments on mockups. What's your fastest way to get clear feedback?

Heads up on that $40/month AI design assistant subscription

I signed up hoping it would speed up my mockup work, but it kept generating unusable, generic layouts that wasted more time than they saved. Has anyone found an AI tool that actually gets your specific style?

Can we talk about the time a client's feedback file broke my entire Monday?

Last month, a client from Boston sent a 50 page PDF with notes scribbled in a weird, old version of Acrobat. My usual plugin couldn't read it, so I spent 4 hours manually copying comments into Figma. I now make everyone use a single, agreed-upon feedback tool before a project even starts. What's your go-to method for locking down the review process?

My whole client presentation file corrupted right before a big meeting

It happened Tuesday morning, an hour before I had to show a branding project to a new client. I was using Figma and the auto-save just... didn't. The file loaded as a blank page. I had to quickly pull old screenshots from my project folder and rebuild the flow in a new file in 20 minutes. Has anyone else had a Figma file just die on them, and what's your backup plan now?

I used to spend hours manually aligning icons until I found a plugin called 'Nudgelt' that lets me set custom grid increments.

Now I can tap an arrow key to move things exactly 4 pixels, which cut my icon set build time from a whole afternoon to maybe 90 minutes, so does anyone have other plugin suggestions for speeding up UI asset creation?

Finally caved and bought a proper digital asset manager for my freelance work

Spent about $120 on Eagle last year, and it's already saved me from at least a dozen frantic searches for that 'one perfect stock photo' I swore I saved somewhere. Has anyone else found a tool that actually cut down on your file chaos?

Just figured out my layer naming was costing me an hour a week

I watched a junior designer zip through a file in 5 minutes while I was still hunting for a button layer, which made me finally build a proper naming system with prefixes like 'btn_' and 'txt_'.

I spent 4 hours on a logo mockup that my boss redid in 10 minutes.

I was making a new brand mark for a bakery, and I kept drawing every single icon option by hand in Illustrator. My boss saw me, opened a font file called 'Food Icons', and just typed letters to get perfect symbols. Do you think starting with a solid icon library is cheating, or is it just smart to save time?

Why does nobody talk about how long it takes to get a client's brand color to look right on a printed t-shirt?

I just spent 4 hours yesterday trying to match a Pantone 2945 C for a merch order, going back and forth with the printer over email and adjusting my file 6 times before it finally looked close enough.

I hit 500 custom color swatches in my main design file and it made me realize how much my process has changed

After three projects, I finally made a proper template for client feedback and it cut my revision time in half.

My boss told me to stop making custom icons for every project

I thought it was lazy advice, but after wasting a week on a set for a bank app, I just use a library now. Anyone have a go-to icon set for fintech stuff?

Just realized I've been naming my Photoshop layers 'final', 'final_revised', and 'final_revised2' for like 8 years.

A junior designer on my team asked me for the icon file and I spent 15 minutes clicking through a dozen 'final' versions before I found the right one, so what's your actual system for version control?

Switched from a 16 inch MacBook Pro to a 14 inch model and my back is thanking me

I lugged that big laptop to client meetings in Chicago for two years. After the switch, my whole bag is lighter and I'm not as tired at the end of the day. It forced me to clean up my desktop and rely more on cloud storage, which actually sped up my file finding. Anyone else find that a smaller tool made you work smarter?

A client said my color palette looked 'like a bad 90s website' and it made me rethink my whole process

Just figured out that naming my layers is the only thing keeping me sane

For years, I'd just let Illustrator auto-name everything 'Path 147' or 'Group 23', and then spend 15 minutes hunting for one tiny shape. Last month, a 50-layer project for a local bakery's menu turned into a total mess. Now, I force myself to name every single layer as I make it, like 'background_leaf' or 'logo_text_shadow'. It adds maybe two seconds per step but saves me hours of frustration later. How do you guys keep your files from becoming a digital junk drawer?

I hit 50 versions on a single logo file and it broke my brain

I mean, I was just noodling around with a concept for a local brewery, right? I kept saving new copies every time I tweaked something small, like the curve on a hop leaf or the spacing between letters. I opened the folder this morning to send a preview and the version count was at 52. It took me a solid 20 minutes just to figure out which file was the current one. Has anyone else gotten lost in their own version history like that? What do you do to keep it clean?

My Figma file corrupted right before a big presentation

It happened two days ago, about an hour before I had to show my work to the team. The whole component library just turned into a gray error screen. I had to quickly export the last few PNGs I had saved locally and rebuild the flow in a new file from scratch. Has anyone else had a major file crash and found a good auto-backup plugin that actually works?

Switched my whole file naming system to dates first, and it backfired in a weird way

I got tired of hunting for the latest version, so I started naming everything '2024-04-15_projectname_v3' thinking it would sort perfectly. Turns out, my brain still looks for the project name first, and now I spend more time scanning than I ever did before. Has anyone else tried a naming convention that just didn't stick with how you actually work?

My Figma file hit 1,000 components before I even noticed

I was just cleaning up old pages and the count popped up, which is wild because I started with maybe 20. Anyone else have a library that just quietly exploded on them?

A client in Seattle asked me to show them my messy Figma file

They said seeing the layers and components all over the place made the final design feel more real and less like magic. It happened during a screen share last Tuesday. Now I don't spend hours cleaning up files before reviews. Does anyone else share their process mess with clients?

Had a major Figma file corruption scare right before a big presentation in Chicago. Here's what saved me.