How to set up project folders for video and design jobs

By INTRVL · Updated 28 Oct 2026 · 7 min read

We plan our folders around how we actually work, keep them few, and add one only when a job needs it. Every job gets its own folder with the same layout inside, so we always know where things are. Original files, working files and finished exports each get their own place. Everyone's work is different, so the trees below are ours to borrow from, not a template you have to follow.

Plan it around your own work

Before making any folders, we look at a typical job and ask three things:

• What comes in? The brief, footage, photos, logos, music.
• What do we make? The edit, the grade, the layout files.
• What goes out? Drafts for review, the finals, the invoice.

Each answer that shows up on most jobs gets a folder. Everything else waits until a job actually needs it. A colorist, a wedding photographer and a motion designer will each end up with a different tree, and that's how it should be.

The trap: too many folders

It's tempting to make a folder for everything on day one: Drone, Timelapse, Stock, Old versions, Misc. Most of them end up empty, and empty folders aren't harmless. Every extra folder is one more click to get anywhere, and one more decision about where a file goes.

So we let the template change with the work. If we keep making the same folder by hand, it goes into the template. If a folder stays empty for a few jobs in a row, it comes out. Two levels deep covers almost everything we do.

The steps

1. Make one root folder for all jobs. Create a single folder called Jobs on the drive you work from, and keep every job inside it.
2. Make one folder per job. Start its name with the job number, then a short description, for example ACME-014 Brand film. (More on that in a simple job numbering system.)
3. Add only the subfolders you use. One for each thing that really comes in, gets made or goes out on your jobs. Start each with a two-digit number, like 01_Footage and 02_Audio, so they stay in the order you work.
4. Keep source, project files and exports apart. Put original media in one folder, your editing or design files in another, and finished deliveries in a third.
5. Archive when the job is done. Delete what you can regenerate, then move the whole job folder to an Archive folder or an external drive.

You can build any of the trees below by hand. Or use the folder maker: it lets you pick a starter folder tree (video job, design job, photo shoot), edit it, warns about names Windows refuses, and downloads a .zip of the empty folders.

Our tree for a video job

ACME-014 Brand film/
├── 00_Brief/
├── 01_Footage/
│   ├── A-cam/
│   └── B-cam/
├── 02_Audio/
│   ├── Music/
│   ├── VO/
│   └── SFX/
├── 03_Graphics/
├── 04_Project/
│   ├── Edit/
│   └── Grade/
├── 05_Exports/
│   ├── Drafts/
│   └── Final/
└── 06_Admin/

Our tree for a design job

ACME-015 Rebrand/
├── 00_Brief/
├── 01_Reference/
├── 02_Assets/
│   ├── Fonts/
│   ├── Images/
│   └── Logos/
├── 03_Working/
├── 04_Exports/
│   ├── Drafts/
│   └── Final/
└── 05_Admin/

These fit how we work. Yours might need fewer folders, or different ones, and we'd start with fewer than you think. What matters to us is that every job looks the same, so there's no hunting for where things went.

Why we number the top-level folders

Folders list by name, so without numbers Audio comes before Footage and Exports sits in the middle. A number at the front puts them in the order you actually work: brief, media, project, delivery.

We use two digits. Windows and Mac are usually smart about numbers, so 2 comes before 10 there. But some apps and websites sort letter by letter, and there 10 jumps ahead of 2. Even Apple says Finder's exact order can differ by language. With 01, 02, 10 the order comes out the same everywhere, so we don't have to think about it.

How we keep source, project and exports apart

• Source is what you were given or shot: footage, photos, logos, fonts. We treat it as read-only and never save over it.
• Project files are your edit, grade or layout files. They point at the source, so we don't move the source around once a project is open.
• Exports are what you send out. We keep drafts and finals in separate folders and put a version in the name, like BrandFilm_v03.mp4.

This is how we've come to do it, not a rule. The payoff is that we can delete caches and drafts, or hand over just the finals, without touching anything we can't recreate.

Where to keep the job folders

We pick one root, such as Jobs on the main work drive, and put everything in it rather than starting a second place "just for this one". If your footage is large, a fast external drive works well for the root, with a backup.

We keep paths short. Windows has trouble once the full path (the drive, every folder and the file name together) passes 260 characters, and many apps still stick to that limit. Lots of nested folders with long names get there faster than you'd think. Our own habit is to keep each name under 80 characters.

If the folder is synced to the cloud

Windows doesn't allow these characters in a name: < > : " / \ | ? *. It also reserves some names, such as CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9, even with an extension (CON.txt counts), and a name can't end with a space or a period. Cloud services add their own rules on top:

Archiving finished jobs

1. Delete what you can regenerate: render caches, proxies, preview files and draft exports.
2. Keep the source, the project files and the finals.
3. Move the whole job folder to Archive or an external drive, and keep it under the year.
4. Open one project from the archive to check the links still work.

Because every job has the same layout, we can do this in a minute without reading each folder.