Planning an artwork approval project is an extensive process, sometimes taking months to finish. 

Artwork approval processes involve multiple collaborators and teams such as marketing, legal, packaging, and more. In some brands, global and local teams often collaborate across geographies. Moreover, they use different communication channels. Often due to time differences and their involvement in other projects, it creates a murky workflow.    

Consequently, artwork management becomes a mission-critical task.

That’s how Artwork Flow was born. 

Over the past year, we have worked with brands from different industries for artwork approval projects. Here is a list of questions that you might have about artwork management processes and Artwork Flow features. 

A) Team Collaboration 

Q 1) How do I know if Artwork Flow is right for my business? 

You might also search for:

• Who is Artwork Flow meant for?
• How can Artwork Flow help remote creative teams?
• How can I stop my teams from working in silos?  
  

A. We know it’s a little strange, but to answer this question, we need you to ask yourself some questions. Here we go! 

• Are your projects constantly getting delayed or stuck due to complicated approval and feedback processes?
• Is it difficult to gain visibility on design projects?
• Do you find it hard to find artwork files? 
• Are errors increasing the number of revisions?
• Is it difficult to manage artwork projects during remote working?
  

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then it’s time to simplify your processes with Artwork Flow. At its core, Artwork Flow is a team collaboration platform for artwork management projects.

The cloud-based platform is meant for brands or organizations who work on multiple artwork approval projects, release multiple products, have multiple collaborators and teams, and have complicated artwork approval processes.  

Creative teams function on intensive collaboration, we understand the need for a seamless process that works for all types of teams including remote teams. 

Project managers, design managers, brand managers who are in charge of artwork management projects can help their teams get organized while impacting revenue.   

Q 2) How can packaging artwork management help me go-to-market faster?

You might also search for:

• How can Artwork Flow help me go to market faster?
• Is it possible to avoid delays in creative projects?
• How to accelerate creative project timelines? 
  

A. When it comes to packaging and label artwork approvals in a product’s GTM strategy, Artwork Flow has helped brands to reduce their timelines by more than 50%. 

If you are a brand or an organization with multiple collaborators releasing multiple products, then here’s how Artwork Flow can help: 

• Checklists: Assign specific tasks to collaborators and fix any accountability and ownership issues.
• Notifications: Set up reminders for task generation, task completion, overdue, and escalation emails if there any project delays. 
• Online proofing tools: Artwork proofing tools such as the PDF compare tool helps to compare any two artwork versions. Other tools include a spell checker, font finder, and color extractor.   
• Digital Asset Management: Store all versions effortlessly on the cloud. Share files directly with collaborators without the need of file sharing websites. 

Q 3) How can I reduce excessive revisions on artwork files? 

A. There are 3 reasons why you might be constantly revising your packaging/labeling artworks: 

1. Gaps in the creative brief
2. Errors in the artwork 
3. Missing out on elements    

It’s essential to give a detailed creative brief that covers all aspects including objective, target audience profile, and brand guidelines. Parallelly, understand who will be involved in reviewing different parts of the artwork and add them to the process.       

While approving artworks, avoid errors by using online proofing tools such as pdf comparisons, color extractor, and spell checker. These tools help to accurately approve files without relying on guesswork or manual checking. By using Artwork Flow’s in-built online proofing tools, brands have reduced the number of artwork versions, consequently decreasing the need for revisions.  ‍

Q 4) How can I simplify the feedback process? 

You might also search for:

• Multiple email threads and chats are complicating the feedback process. How can I resolve this? 
• As a project manager, how can I simplify the artwork approval process?
• How can I get rid of excel sheets to schedule tasks or projects?
  

A. We feel ya!  

As a project manager, you might be in charge of collating and distributing feedback. But it becomes difficult when there are too many communication mediums. 

Was the feedback given through a Slack message? WhatsApp? Email? Excel Sheets? Maybe Hangouts. Or perhaps, it was given on a call. 

Annotations and comments in Artwork Flow are helping teams to simplify feedback. A reviewer can click anywhere on an artwork file and drop a comment for revision. This ensures that the feedback is accurate, direct, and recorded. 

Q 5)  What are parallel workflows? 

A. After a collaborator reviews an artwork file, the file moves on to be reviewed by the next collaborator, then it’s called a sequential workflow, i.e., the review process is arranged in a sequence. This type of workflow is helpful for small teams. 

For larger teams, set up parallel workflows. It allows project managers to set up different collaborators to review a file during the same stage. E.g, the marketing team, and the legal team both need to review the artwork file simultaneously. The designer will receive consolidated feedback and make the appropriate changes.   

Q 6) How can I scale up my artwork approval process as the number of products increase? 

A. Once your product portfolio or range increases, then it’s understandable that new packaging/labeling artwork needs to be created or perhaps, an existing artwork needs to be adapted.

Therefore, it’s important to scale up your artwork management process. Adopting an artwork management software can help your expanding teams to:

• Create multiple projects
• Give access to collaborators to specific projects (Read more in QX)  
• Schedule deadlines for every activity 
• Assign checklists and tasks
• Store and control different design versions 
• Track project through dashboards
• Give feedback through in-built approval tools
• Track overall team productivity through dashboards
• Audit activities for every project         
  

Take a look at how Teabox is using Artwork Flow to manage multiple projects and reducing artwork approval time by 70%.  

B) Industry Cases

Q 7) Can Artwork Flow help me with packaging label compliance management? 

You might also search for:

• Can I approve compliant pharmaceutical labels on Artwork Flow?
• Can I approve compliant food labels on Artwork Flow? 
  

A. Yes! We understand the importance of releasing accurate packaging labels and artworks. 

As a project manager, you can invite legal and compliance teams for specific projects. You can assign checklists to the legal teams to check if the label artwork is compliant or not. 

The legal and compliant teams themselves can use online proofing tools to review the artwork and approve or reject the files.          

🔖 BONUS READS 🔖

1) Food Labeling 101 - FDA Regulations Guide [2020]

2) FSSAI Packaging Label Regulations 101

3) Avoid These 5 Common Errors in Pharmaceutical Labeling

Q 8) Can I simplify the labeling rework process?   

You might also search for:

• With changes in compliance and changing labeling laws, how to simplify the label rework process and launch my products quickly before the deadline?
• My product has just been recalled due to a labeling error, and I need to rework the label quickly. How can we simplify the process?
  

A. Yes!

Compliance changes are often released by industry authorities with deadlines. Artwork Flow offers users to set deadlines and due dates not just for an artwork project, but also for every activity. 

As a project manager, you can also upload the existing and revised artwork versions to the platform and share them with the required teams to be reviewed. They can use online proofing tools to see differences and share feedback with the designer. 

🔖 BONUS READ 🔖

1) Labeling Requirements: Recent Changes & How to Comply [2021]

C) Security, Storage & Feature Updates

Q 9) Is Artwork Flow secure?

You might also search for:

• My artwork files are confidential & private. Why should I trust Artwork Flow to keep my files safe?
  

A. Don’t worry, it’s all safe. 

Security and IPR protections are baked into our philosophy. We understand the importance and safety of your files. 

Our security structure ensures a high level of database security (in transit, at rest, with frequent backups and complete logs of actions). Additionally, your stored files are safe by ensuring a pre-signed URL method to ensure your data is only accessible to you. We also ensure the safety of our network calls by using HTTPS and a secured token using JWT.

Read more here. 

Q 10) How can version control help me? 

You might also search for:

• Is there a way to securely store all artwork versions in a digital asset management/central repository?
  

A. Artwork Flow’s digital asset management library comes with a powerful version control feature. The version control feature helps in the following ways:

1) You can upload multiple versions of an artwork file 

2) Select any version as the current version or working file   

Therefore, you’ll never lose an artwork version and will always know which artwork is the final or the latest working file.  

Note: Currently, Artwork Flow offers 500 GB of storage space to users. If your capacity requirement is higher, then you can let us know on artworkflow-support@bizongo.com.

Q 11) What file formats are supported by Artwork Flow?

A. Artwork Flow supports artwork files in pdf formats. If you have files in AI or CDR file format, then simply export it to PDF format to upload. Files in .ai format can also be viewed in Artwork Flow.

Q 12) Can I share artwork files from Artwork Flow?

A. Yes! Simply click the Share icon in the Packaging Asset Management Library and send it to your team or an external collaborator who will receive an email with a link to the files.

Q 13) Does Artwork Flow have any plug-ins? 

A. We sure do!

Currently, we have two plug-ins to improve your team’s productivity. 

1) Click here for Adobe Creative Cloud extension

2) Click here for the Google Drive extension ‍

Q 14) How often do you roll out updates? 

A. We don’t have a fixed number of update announcements for every quarter.

However, you should know that there is a dedicated team of engineers and developers constantly improving the platform regularly to make it more intuitive, helpful, and powerful. The Artwork Flow team works on updating features, building new ones, and running beta-tests with focus groups. 

You can take a look at the latest update here.     

‍Q 15) Will you be building new features? 

You might also ask:

• There are some features that I need and are missing from Artwork Flow. Can you build them?
  

A. Yes, as we mentioned in the earlier question, we are working on updating and building new features. 

If there is a functionality that you require, please drop us a line at artworkflow@bizongo.com. If the feature passes our evaluation, we will include it on our roadmap and prioritize its implementation. 

D) Artwork Flow: Set Up & Pricing 

Q 16) Do I have to download Artwork Flow? 

A. Nope!

Artwork Flow is a cloud-based artwork management software, so you don’t have to download anything! 

Therefore, your teams can access the platform from any location with their credentials.     

Q 17) Can I try Artwork Flow without paying?

A. Yes, absolutely! You can try the free plan with 3 users free. If you want your entire team to try the platform, you can reach out to us to start a 14-day trial.

Q 18) What is your payment policy?

You might also search for:

• Do you have individual pricing?
• Can I cancel my subscription plan?
• Can I edit my pricing plan?
  

A. You can sign up for free to explore the tool and try out features. 

If you choose the pay-as-you-go model, you will be charged on the number of users at $44.99/month/user. 

For improved productivity, get in touch with us to select the best plan for your team. 

Note: You have complete control over user management. If you choose to cancel your subscription at any time, your billing will stop from the next cycle. If you choose to reduce the number of subscribers, your billing will reflect the change from the next billing cycle.

Q 19) How long will it take to onboard my team? 

You might also search for:

• Can I onboard my design agency? 
• I want to migrate from another tool to Artwork Flow. How can I do that?
  

Our team will help you to set up your workflows as per industry best practices with an overarching focus on improving your team's efficiency and ultimately the time taken to market.

📢 Have we missed anything? 

Have any questions that we haven’t covered here? Let us know!

We want to keep this article as informative and helpful as possible. For this reason, we will constantly update it with new FAQs and fresh notes. If you have any questions or need us to add any information to this article, then drop a comment below.    

Share this article with your teams and give them a clearer understanding of artwork management.