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I manage our company's in-house graphic design. We have a lot of requests that are very simple (ie, ad-resizing, simple web banners, logo-adjustments, etc) and a number of requests that are complex and require a lot of back and forth (ie, brochures and magazines ranging from 3 to 200 pages, concept design for new ad campaigns, etc...)

Currently, we employ a very simple issue tracking system (which is technically for software development) for all requests. For the most part it does the job. Users can write a description of the materials they need, upload attachments, leave comments, but because our company is growing in size and the amount of requests are steadily growing, I was looking for a more robust solution.

After doing a lot of research, I've found a number of new systems I could potentially upgrade to, however, everything I have found explains how their system is best suited for an IT/software development team.

So before upgrading to a newer, more robust project management system that is specifically geared toward software development/IT desktop support, I was wondering if anyone of knew of any ticketing/collaborative systems specifically geared toward graphic design?

Thanks

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  • Some of the project management software I know / have seen in use in design agencies are activecollab, troi, revolver and FileMaker. I only worked with revolver and cannot really recommend it.
    – tim human
    Apr 17, 2013 at 4:58
  • Hi , Unfortunately most of the ticketing systems out there are tailored to it and support . However if you know all of the requirements for what you would like in a ticketing system. This is something you could pay a developer to architect for you. I have built a few ticketing systems in the past that have varied based on the clients I have worked with.let me know if this is something of interest.
    – rwatts
    Sep 10, 2014 at 17:59

5 Answers 5

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I don't know of any that are design specific. However, I work as a web developer and we also have UI designers who use the same system as all of the developers.

There's quite a few systems out there. The ones I'm most familiar with are Basecamp and JIRA.

JIRA is my personal favorite, I've used it at multiple companies and it is really customizable. It has great tracking abilities, burndown charts, and much much more.

While these type of software are usually geared towards software development there's no reason it can't apply to graphic design. You can attached screenshots to issues/stories and write all details about it as well.

I guess what you need to ask yourself is what you really want from a software, and see if said software meets your requirements -- and if it does, then look no further.

Besides, just because one thing is labeled to be used for thing A, doesn't mean you can't make it work for thing B.

That being said, maybe there is such a "graphic design" software, but I haven't heard of anything yet. Maybe someone else has.

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Microsoft Sharepoint may be the best simple list-request option, particularly in a Microsoft based corporate environment. I use it daily in my day job, I have a custom list where people can input the request information and I manage the tasks from there.

With Sharepoint you have the ability to make custom views/lists and filter results based on any column (form field you create). You can even do calculated column formulas like "how many days before due date" or "if type = print, assign to Fred, if type = web, assign to Joe..." It is very customizable.

If you want a project management tool for multi-stage projects, as Johannes suggested, Basecamp may be better. It seems however that you are doing a similar thing to what I do (the in house graphics department), which is more "tasks" than "projects". Having used both basecamp and Sharepoint, Sharepoint is a much more appropriate solution for this.

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  • I didn't realize we posted SharePoint at the same time.
    – user9447
    Apr 15, 2013 at 15:19
  • Have you used InfoPath 2010 and what SharePoint are you in? I'm using 2013 but I hate how you cant customize the form design or input.
    – user9447
    Apr 15, 2013 at 16:28
  • That is my frustration with it too. The lack of dynamic forms where "if option A is selected, reveal these options", and also the layout where everything is in vertical alignment sucks. My company uses it company wide in many departments, not just graphics. We're running 2010, and most of the integration side is managed by IT. Haven't used InfoPath.
    – John
    Apr 15, 2013 at 18:43
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If you're after something that is very generic, you could do worse than Trello: it's designed for tracking lists of lists, and then moving individual cards/requests between the lists. You have some pretty fine-grained controls for sharing within an organisation as well.

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There isn't any dedicated graphic design software out there that I've seen and I have looked.

Also, as already stated there is BaseCamp and JIRA. I wouldn't recommend JIRA because it is costly and for enterprise level unless you are looking for an enterprise edition.

Some other suggestions:

  • SharePoint: very customizable but for an enterprise level. There is an online edition here.
  • Filemaker pro does cost but fairly easy to do.

Open source ticket systems:

This stackoverflow thread may be helpful too. There are some other solutions I will post later from my hosting provider that offer free setups on my shared hosting. Thats another option. If you have a web server see what they offer.

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As mentioned before, a dedicated project management software such as Jira may be overkill and too clumsy for your application. At the same time, a plain helpdesk may just solve one end of your problem (tackle your tickets) but it won't necessarily help out with collaboration or feedback tracking that you'll receive from your clients.

Something that may work for you is Helprace.

Helprace is not only a ticket system for client requests, but also a collaboration and idea tracking tool. Customers or staff can collaborate and share questions/ideas/problem/praise publicly. You can also open as many portals as you like (for different projects) or make them private, so only staff can see them (in other words, staff can collaborate in private).

To be honest, I don't know of other simple project collaboration + helpdesk combos, but most helpdesk providers want to do one thing and do it well, so rather than committing to developing the whole system from scratch, they will offer integrations which is not for everyone.

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