Keep approved illustrations easy to find and reuse

What this means for your practice

Maintain an asset library with clear purpose, usage rights and version information. Reuse should preserve the illustration's original meaning and relevant context.

A practical example

For example, an illustration of one booking process may be unsuitable for another service with different steps. Ask the designer to include that context in the file description, rather than calling it simply “booking graphic”. Have a colleague find an appropriate image for a fictional page using the library alone. A good result makes approved material easy to locate while giving staff enough information to avoid stretching its meaning. Review the collection when services or processes change, not just when new artwork is commissioned.

Keep usage notes short enough that staff will read them. A clear purpose, approved version and relevant restriction are more useful than a large folder with no guidance. Provide a route to ask when a proposed reuse changes the original explanation.

Make the design useful in everyday work

Organise the library around the tasks the illustrations support rather than the order in which they were commissioned. Give each asset a short purpose description, approved version, relevant rights and any context that must travel with it. Ask a colleague to select an image for a fictional page using only those records. Their choice will reveal whether filenames and notes help distinguish similar artwork. Keep retired versions clearly marked and editable originals accessible to authorised maintainers. When the underlying process changes, review affected illustrations and their captions together instead of assuming reusable artwork remains accurate indefinitely.

How to check the result

Measure unnecessary rework and use of outdated artwork.