Subversion for design files: can we do better?

[James W. Yoon]

Hi all,

Recently, the question came up about whether the use of Subversion is appropriate for storing and organizing our design files. While Subversion was never intended for primarily binary files (e.g., design files), it was convenient for the designers to piggy back on Fluid's code repository. Fluid's code repo has since transitioned over to Github.

What we like about svn:
- gives a centralized repository for our design and other media files
- relatively easily updatable (with a good client)
- keeps a history of the files

What's troublesome about svn:
- doesn't allow us to title and describe our files (except through file names), making it challenging for both designers and non-designers to find what they need
- difficult for two or more designers to work on the same file at the same time
- difficult to use if you don't have an svn client
- difficult to link to from the wiki, emails, etc. (direct links spew out the file as text)

The suggestion of introducing another design repository/collaboration solution (e.g., digital assets management software) has come up. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Cheers,
James