How do you store and organize design assets, like temporarily free downloads, that you get for for later use?

Question

I'm a graphic design student who has done some paid work in a small way. I've figured out some basic asset management about organizing client files. What I haven't figured out is how to store assets for future use. For example, I'm always seeing assets that blogs or sites like Creative Market etc offer for free download for a short time. I don't have a system for storing these assets for the future, in a way that:

1. I will be able to remember it when I need it (ie storing all my assets in some kind of way that is easy to browse).
2. I can track what the usage rights are
3. I can track in what projects I've used an asset.

Answer 1

What I found is that these are only relevant in the short to medium term. Like, I used to collect buttons and UI sets in PSD a few years ago, spent alot of time renaming and categorizing the stuff. If I look at those folders today, everything is outdated and pretty much useless, so ended up deleting most of that.

What I now do is keep a few bookmarks of the latest stuff like 2 good icon websites, 2 good free PSD websites, plus there's always behance where you find all this stuff in the latest form. When I need something like in the next 2 seconds, I never look at my local archive, just go online and look it up via these bookmarks.

Answer 2

If any external resources are used, other than stock photography, they are stored along side client files for a project. I am not one to reuse the same external resources over and over and over for different clients, except for stock photography in some instances.

For stock photos, I store them in a separate alphabetical directory with subdirectories for the source of the photo i.e.:

-Animals
  - Birds
      Eagle_DT-00000000.psd
      Eagle_IS-0000000000.psd
  - Cats
      Housecat_Grey_DT-000000001.psd
      Housecat_Grey_IS-000000008.psd
      Housecat_White_DT-000000041.psd
- Buildings
  - Homes
      Craftsman_Blue_DT-000000041.psd
      Craftsman_Grey_DT-000000041.psd
      Tutor_Green-IS-000000008.psd
      Victorian_Yellow_DT-000000041.psd
  - Skylines
      Chicgo_IS-000000008.psd
      Chicago_Night_IS-000000041.psd
      NewYork_IS-000000008.psd
      NewYork_DT-000000041.psd
      Miami_IS-000000008.psd
      London_DT-000000041.psd

File titles are altered... [ myDescriptiveTitle_sourceAbbreviation-imageNumber ] I can then go to the source web site, and search for the image number if I need the license again.

And note that for Stock photos, most services will allow you to view you account and download again if needed. So, often there may not be a need to store raw images locally. However, it's exceptionally rare I use a stock photo in it's downloaded form without editing it.