A collection can grow through saving before it grows through understanding. A file arrives, receives a convenient name, and settles beside other things that happened to be nearby.
Before moving everything into a new structure, ask what you want to find later. Reading notes, source images, completed work, and correspondence may call for different routes through the same collection.
That question gives the arrangement a purpose. It also helps you recognize when a folder is doing too many jobs to remain understandable.
Let the folders describe a relationship.
A useful folder name tells you something about the contents without needing the whole collection to be memorized. Keep neighboring names at a similar level of description.
This small tree separates roles rather than file formats. Another collection may need a different arrangement. The useful question is whether a reader can explain the relationship between the branches.
When a file seems to belong everywhere, consider whether its description needs a reference in the collection note. Repeating copies without explaining their relationship can make the next search harder.
A new name should explain the change.
A sequence of files can record a useful development or become a row of indistinguishable “final” versions. Name the distinction you will actually need when you return.
Source copy
The material you obtained and want to keep recognizable as a source. Record its origin separately from your later changes.
Working version
A copy developed for a task. Its label should help distinguish the work from the source and from another meaningful stage.
Derived item
A summary, export, crop, or other result made from existing material. Keep the relationship to its source available.
A date can be useful when you know what it refers to. A file’s name, a visible document date, and the moment you saved it do not necessarily describe the same event.
Leave the collection a small introduction.
A collection note can explain its purpose, the meaning of the folders, the origin of important material, and any unresolved gaps. It gives a future reader an entrance that is more useful than a list of names alone.
Keep the note brief enough to revise. If the arrangement changes, update the explanation so the collection does not ask its reader to reconstruct an abandoned system.
An archive is an ongoing act of organization. A readable structure and a helpful note serve the next encounter with the material rather than promising that the collection will never need attention again.