Format (Index) to locate sketches in scrapbooks

Question

I am looking to sit down diligently every day and sketch something in my Moleskine whether it be for work or fun to get a grasp on my own creation versus checking design blogs only. What I would like to know is a way to organize going back through many sketchbooks while keeping a constant tagging system. For example I want to check which pages have official work for website versus which pages are game sprite design.

A lazy solution would be to keep it in really huge scrapbooks. This is inefficient for me, the largest Moleskine I can carry easily is the

Sketchbook - large
104 pages
5” x 8 ¼”

I have on more than one occasion decided to switch to pocket version (80 pages).

So I already have two or three sketchbooks lying around and I don't want it to be a hassle to flip back through past designs. Is there an official method for keeping tabs on this? Maybe I place a little note and it to the back with the page number? Then I will need an index for each of indices of each book in my library?

Answer 1

Have you considered using small, colored flags? Affix the dispensers on the cover and stick the colored flags where needed.

Answer 2

If you really wanted to make a project of it, you could photograph each page and then tag the photos in Bridge or iPhoto. You'd have to number each page and label each sketchbook so you could find it later, but then you'd end up with a search term of, say, "website UI design" and get a result of "Book 6 page 12, Book 6 page 14, Book 3 page 87."

It would be a bit of work to start it, but maintenance would be easy. Just snap a photo every day when you're done drawing and add it to the database.