12th Grade — Packaging & Handoff: Preparing Files a Client Can Actually Use

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

You just received a Zip file from a freelancer with 40 files named "final.psd," "final2.psd," and "finalFINAL.psd." What's wrong with this?

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do we package and organize a finished job so the client (or a print vendor) can actually open and use every file?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Organize a finished job's files into a clear, labeled folder structure a client could navigate without help.
Export a finished job in every file format its delivery actually requires (e.g. print-ready PDF, web-ready PNG/JPG, editable source file).
Write a short handoff note explaining what's included and how to use it.

🧰 What You'll Need

A finished studio job (real or practice)
Computer with Photoshop
Access to the shared Drive

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Organizing & Naming

Do Now (5 min, above).
Mini-lesson (10 min): what a client actually needs in a handoff (every format they'll use, a source file, clear names) and a real file-naming convention.
Workshop (30 min): organize one finished job into a labeled folder structure and rename every file consistently.

Day 2: Exporting Every Format & the Handoff Note

Do Now (5 min): list every format this job's delivery actually requires.
Export (20 min): export the job in each required format (print-ready PDF, web PNG/JPG, and keep the editable source file).
Write (15 min): write a short handoff note listing what's included and how to use each file.
Submit (5 min).

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Handoff: The moment a finished job's files are delivered to a client -- everything the client needs should be included and clearly labeled.
Source File: The original, fully-editable version of a project (e.g. a .psd or .ai file), as opposed to a flattened export.
File Naming Convention: A consistent, predictable pattern for naming files so anyone can tell what's inside without opening it.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Folder structure, file naming, and exports checked against a handoff checklist; handoff note checked for being clear enough that someone outside the studio could follow it.

Exit Ticket: What's one thing about your own file organization habits you're going to change after this, and why?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Packaging & Handoff: Preparing Files a Client Can Actually Use.” This project asked: “How do we package and organize a finished job so the client (or a print vendor) can actually open and use every file?” I used Handoff by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same "make it usable by someone else" discipline a Computer Science class teaches about documenting code.

Career Connection: Clean handoff is explicitly named on the Industrial & Product Design career page as a real, valued skill.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Package a real finished project (files, fonts, instructions) exactly as if handing it to a client who's never seen your software. Start here: zip together every file, font, and asset the project actually used, then try opening it on a different computer to see what's missing.
Write a "file handoff checklist" as real reference material for the whole studio to reuse. Start here: list everything that broke or was missing in your own handoff test above — that failure list is your checklist.