How to Make a Creative Asset Inventory Before a Redesign
A practical way to list existing images, source files, owners, and usage before changing a website or campaign.
A redesign often starts with a list of new pages. It also needs a list of what is already in use. A logo in a slide deck may differ from the one on the website. A product image may have an editable source but no one knows where it lives. If you reorganize folders before finding those connections, you can lose a file that still matters.
An asset inventory is a temporary working record of the files you have, where they appear, and what still needs a decision. It is useful before changing a website, rebranding a campaign, or moving a team to a new shared drive. This guide uses a fictional project, Harborfield Coffee, to show a small inventory that a person can actually maintain.
Define the boundary first
Write down what this inventory covers: for example, the live website and current email templates, but not the company's entire archive. Name the person who can answer questions about each destination. If you include everything at once, the list may become too large to review and the important files will be buried.
For Harborfield Coffee, the initial boundary is the homepage, three product pages, and one welcome email. The team will inventory published images and the editable sources needed to replace them. Old social campaigns can wait until the website work is settled.
Capture use, not just filenames
Start at each destination and record the image or file that a visitor actually sees. Then trace it to the delivered export and, if needed, its editable source. A file explorer search alone cannot tell you whether an image is still used on a live page.
Use one row per usage. The same logo may appear on the homepage and in an email. Those are separate rows if they have different size, format, or replacement requirements. A compact table is enough:
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Usage | Page, email, print piece, or other destination |
| Current file | Exact filename or URL, not a visual guess |
| Source | Editable source path, if one is known |
| Owner | Person who can confirm whether it is current |
| Decision | Keep, replace, retire, or investigate |
| Note | Constraint or open question that affects the decision |
An example row might read: Homepage hero | harborfield_header_wide_v03.webp | 02-source/harborfield_campaign_v03.svg | Design lead | Investigate | Confirm whether the copy in the image is still approved. The paths and names are fictional examples, not files from a real client.
Separate facts from guesses
If an owner is unknown, write “unknown.” If two files look identical, keep both listed until you compare their dimensions, contents, and uses. Do not mark an old-looking file for deletion simply because its name contains v01.
It helps to add a “checked on” date and a link to the actual page or folder. A reviewer can then see whether the inventory reflects today's site or an older export. If a source file has moved, record the old path as a lead and the new path once verified. The inventory should show what you know rather than project certainty.
Review decisions with the right people
Group rows by destination and ask each owner three questions: Is this still in use? Is this the approved version? Will the redesign need an editable source? The answers determine whether a file moves into the new working set, stays archived, or needs investigation.
Do this before cleanup. A replacement decision is different from a deletion decision. Even after a new hero image is published, the old export may be needed for rollback or for a record of previous work. Follow the team's retention rules and check live references before removing anything.
If duplicate candidates appear during the review, use the duplicate-file cleanup process to compare them safely. If the approved file is hard to distinguish from drafts, establish a version decision record.
Turn the inventory into a handoff list
The inventory is complete when someone can answer these questions without searching multiple chats:
- Which current assets will be reused?
- Which ones need new exports or editable sources?
- Which decisions are still open, and who owns them?
- Where will the approved replacements be delivered?
Keep only the fields that help answer those questions. A huge spreadsheet with empty columns does not make a handoff safer. Once the redesign is approved, create a smaller delivery index for the final files. The asset retrieval guide shows how to make that index useful to the next person.
Do a five-minute spot check
Choose one row marked “keep,” one marked “replace,” and one marked “investigate.” Open the destination and the listed file for each. Ask a teammate to find the same items using only the inventory. Fix any missing path, ambiguous filename, or unclear owner before the project depends on the list.
An inventory is successful when it makes the next decision easier. It does not need to be permanent, and it does not need to contain every file the organization has ever made.