Every few months I get an email from someone suggesting that it would be much easier for them to keep track of what designs we have available if we would NAME them based on what the design is instead of numbering the designs. 

Actually, that's the way we started many moons ago when Holly first started digitizing.  Follow along here and you'll soon understand why we use numbers instead of names for our designs!

One of the first designs Holly ever digitized that was good enough to sell was the duck you see pictured below...

AT0001 "Freaked Out Duck"

Originally, Holly had named this design... "Duck".  She went on to make "Dog".  Then "Car".  Then "Cat".  And so on... until she made another duck.  "Now what chief?"  Now it was time to differentiate between duck designs.  So this one was named "Freaked Out Duck" and the other one was named "Duck on a bicycle".  

That worked until she had another design of a duck on a bicycle.  It soon became obvious that she would have to use a numbering system just for the ducks.  So "Duck-1" and "Duck-2" were named.  And all was good with the world. 

Until A Couple Months Later...

... when she started creating some more duck designs.  And she couldn't remember... "Did I end with Duck 7 or was it Duck 8?"   So would this new design become "Duck 8" or "Duck 9?"  As you can see, this becomes a mess quickly when you're digitizing a lot of designs. 

Another problem with naming designs instead of numbering them is REMEMBERING what you named a design when you're looking for it later!  Here's an example again from designs that Holly digitized.  This was originally called either "Dog-Cat" or "Cat-Dog"...

"Dog-Cat" or "Cat-Dog" ?

I honestly don't remember what we first called this design, but the problem becomes obvious when you later make another design with both a cat and a dog in it.  Was that design I did before called "Dog-Cat" or "Cat-Dog"?  And did I add a number behind it making it "Dog-Cat-1"? 

The "Aha!" Moment...

It finally dawned on us when we were trying to organize Holly's designs for upload to our first website that there was no way to keep track of design names when your designs reached into the thousands.  At that point, we looked at how other companies that made and sold thousands of designs handled their design naming problem.  What we found was that all the big guys (Cactus Punch, Dakota Collectibles, etc.) used a numbering system. 

The problem with any numbering system for embroidery designs is that your customers can't tell what the design is based on the number.  With a name, they can tell that it's a cat design.  Or a dog design.  Or a cat-dog.  Or...  You see, they can't really tell exactly what the design is either based on just a file name! 

The only way to know what a design looks like is to see it.  And for that, you must have design viewing software.  And that applies to everyone whether they are an embroiderer or a digitizer.  Since everyone can VIEW a design easily with just a $25 piece of software, it seems that the really obvious way to name designs is to number them.

Positioning For Growth

Another issue with "naming" designs becames obvious if your digitizing business grows to 2 people or more.  The new employee will have no way of knowing your past designs, what sequence they were made in, where to find your test stitchouts, etc., unless you have some sort of organization to all of these areas. 

In order to keep track of our design numbers, Holly created a numbers list.  When she uses a number (assigns it to a design) she crosses the number off the available list.  Next design - next number.  This "MASTER" list is then used to keep track of all designs.

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-- Larry