What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet ...
So Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet in 1594. And I'm sure that he was right. Well, I can't argue with 'that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet', anyway. If a rose was called a battleship, it would look the same, grow in the same way and smell the same. Obviously.
But the implication that a name doesn't matter is very much off beam. I could give lots of reasons and examples but the reason for this rant is the naming of photographs clients send for their projects.
It's very important to be organized with your images. Imagine this scenario:
"Please out the photograph of Mary on her bio page, the photograph of Susan on her bio, the photograph of Barbara on the customer service page and the photograph of Dawn on the contact page." writes the client. Perfect, no problem. Nice and clear.
The designer gets the images and they are called DSC0009856, DSC0005276, DSC0004665 and DSC0004991. All are of smiling female faces. Which is Mary? Which is Dawn? Which is Barbara and which is Susan? We are working on telepathy but we're not there yet.
An interior designer might say "Use the Smith lounge, the Robinson living room, the Jones den and the Evans family room." You know, that's easy if the images are called smithlounge.jpg, robinsonlivingroom.jpg, jonesden.jpg and evansfamilyroom.jpg. But they never are.
Sometimes, the client has purchased the images from a stock photography house where they give them even funkier names which indicate the photographer, the date of issue, the serial number etc. It's not unusual for an image to be titled OOV320164KER511VAS_17.jpg. Oh, that the image you want to use for the home page - I should have known, shouldn't I? Is it really so hard to call it home.jpg?
Or here's another way. Number your photographs - one.jpg, two.jpg - or if that's too taxing on the typing fingers, 1.jpg., 2.jpg., even. Download our handy photograph form and specify which numbered image goes where. You prefer the home.jpg method? Or the smithlounge.jpg method?
Fine, just as long as it's not 2286YYOP_z12GTA2.jpg - please!
Comments