Design projects

A design project is never just the design. Before you open your design tool, there's a research phase: collecting references, pulling together a direction, gathering assets and brand materials. After the design, there's a feedback phase: sharing work, receiving comments, tracking approvals, iterating. The actual design lives in Figma or Sketch or whatever you use. But everything around it, the references, the brief, the assets, the feedback, the client communication, lives in a mess of folders, email threads, and chat messages. The project as a whole has no single home, so half the work is just keeping track of where everything is.

This page is for freelance designers, studios, and creative teams who need one place to manage the full arc of a design project, from reference collection through asset organisation to client sharing and feedback, with search that works by visual similarity, not just filenames.

The problem

The project is spread across too many tools. References in Pinterest or a downloads folder, briefs in email, design files in Figma, assets in Google Drive, feedback in Slack or email threads, and approvals tracked in your head. There's no single place where the whole project lives, so context-switching is constant.

Client feedback is disconnected from the work. A client emails "can you make the header bigger" but you're not sure which version they're looking at. Feedback comes through chat, email, calls, and sometimes text messages, and none of it is attached to the file it refers to. You spend time matching comments to deliverables rather than acting on them.

Finding past work and references takes too long. You know you designed something similar for another client, or saved a reference that would work here, but finding it means scrolling through old folders, searching by project names you've half-forgotten, and hoping the file is where you think it is. Visual assets are the hardest to find by text search because the thing you're looking for is a look, a colour, a style, not a keyword.

What Fabric changes

The whole project lives in one space. References, briefs, design files, assets, feedback, and deliverables all live together in a single Fabric space per project. No more splitting the project across five tools and stitching it together in your head.

Feedback lives on the work. Clients and collaborators annotate directly on the deliverable, pinning comments to the exact spot on an image, a PDF, or a document. The feedback is attached to what it refers to, not floating in an email thread.

You find work and references by what they look like. Search by colour, by visual similarity, or by description. Find a past project that used a similar palette, a reference that matches a style direction, or an asset you saved months ago. Visual search works the way design thinking works.

How it works

Visual and colour search across your library. Fabric's AI search finds images and assets by visual similarity, colour, and meaning. Drop in a reference image and find everything similar in your library. Search by a brand colour to pull every on-palette asset. Describe what you're looking for in words and find it across every file type.

A space per project. Group everything for a project into one Fabric space: the brief, references, moodboards, assets, design files, and deliverables. The whole project is browsable and searchable in one place.

Annotate for feedback. Annotations let you and your clients mark up deliverables directly. Pin a comment to the exact spot on a design, a PDF, or an image. Feedback is specific, contextual, and attached to the file, not lost in a message thread.

Share with clients via tracked links. Publish deliverables, moodboards, or asset collections with password protection and link analytics. You control who has access, and you can see when a client has viewed the material.

Pull in design files and references. Connect Figma for your design files, Dropbox or Google Drive for assets, and capture references from the web with the web clipper. Everything converges in the project space.

Build moodboards on canvas. Use the canvas to arrange references and assets into moodboards or concept boards for client presentations. The moodboard draws from your library rather than requiring a fresh import.

An AI that understands the project. The AI assistant works from the material in your project space. Ask it to find references that match a direction, summarise the brief, or pull together assets by theme or colour.

A design project workflow in Fabric

Start the project space. Create a space when the project begins. Drop in the brief, the brand guidelines, and any initial references. This is the project's single home from day one.

Collect references. Search your existing library for relevant past work and inspiration. Add new references from the web, your phone, or other tools. Arrange the best ones on a canvas as a moodboard.

Share the direction with the client. Publish the moodboard or reference collection with a password-protected link. Track when the client views it.

Gather assets. Pull in logos, brand files, images, and other assets from Figma, Dropbox, Google Drive, or the client's shared folder. Everything lives in the project space and is searchable.

Share deliverables and collect feedback. When the design is ready for review, share it with the client via a tracked link. They annotate directly on the deliverable. You see their feedback pinned to the exact spots, not paraphrased in an email.

Track approvals. Use tasks and reminders to track what's been approved, what needs revision, and what's outstanding. The project management lives alongside the assets rather than in a separate tool.

Archive for future reference. When the project wraps, the space stays. The references, assets, deliverables, and feedback are all searchable, so you can find past work by visual similarity, colour, or description when a future project calls for something similar.

What compounds over time

Every completed project adds to your searchable library. The references you collected, the assets you organised, and the final deliverables are all still there, still findable by visual similarity, colour, or description. Designers who maintain their projects in Fabric find that each new project starts faster, because the relevant past work surfaces when they search for it rather than hiding in an old folder with a client's name on it.

Client work also benefits from the accumulated library. A reference you saved for one client might be exactly what another client's project needs. The visual similarity search gets more useful the more material you have, because there's a deeper pool to match against.

Related use cases

For the inspiration-gathering phase specifically, see moodboards and inspiration. For managing a team's brand and file library at scale, see digital asset management. For sharing deliverables with tracked access and security, see client work and deliverables. For a feedback and sign-off workflow, see review and approval. Fabric is built for designers.

Get started

Give every design project one home where references, assets, feedback, and deliverables live together and are searchable by what they look like. Try Fabric free.

Comparing tools? See why creatives choose Fabric as the best moodboard app, the best app for gathering inspiration, and the best digital asset management tool.

FAQs

Can I search for past designs by what they look like?

Yes. Drop in a reference image and Fabric finds visually similar work across your entire library. You can also search by colour or describe what you're looking for in words.

Can clients annotate directly on my designs?

Yes. Share a deliverable and the client can annotate directly on it, pinning comments to the exact spot. The feedback stays attached to the file rather than floating in an email.

Can I share work with clients securely?

Yes. Publish with password protection and link analytics. You control who has access, and you can see when and how often the client has viewed the material.

Does Fabric connect to Figma?

Yes. Connect Figma to bring your design files into Fabric alongside references, assets, and project materials. Everything lives in the same searchable project space.

Can I build moodboards in Fabric?

Yes. The canvas lets you arrange images, references, and notes spatially into moodboards or concept boards. Your library is the source material, so building a board means arranging what you've already collected.

Can I find assets that match a specific brand colour?

Yes. Search by colour and Fabric finds every image and asset in your library that matches. Useful for pulling together on-palette references or finding assets that fit a specific colour direction.

How is this different from using Dropbox or Google Drive for design projects?

A file storage service organises by filename and folder. Fabric adds visual search (similarity, colour, meaning), annotations pinned to specific spots on files, password-protected sharing with analytics, and an AI assistant that works from your project material. The difference is having a project workspace rather than a folder.

Can multiple designers work in the same project space?

Yes. Share a space with your team and everyone can add material, search across the project, and annotate on deliverables.

Can I track which deliverables are approved?

Yes. Use tasks and reminders to track approval status, and use annotations to mark specific items as approved or needing revision. The workflow lives alongside the assets.

What file types work in a design project space?

Images (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG), PDFs, Figma files, slide decks, documents, video, audio, and any other format Fabric supports. All are searchable and annotatable.

Can I use Fabric for the design itself?

Fabric isn't a design tool. It's the workspace around the design: references, assets, briefs, feedback, approvals, and deliverables. The actual design work happens in Figma, Sketch, or whatever you use. Fabric is where everything else for the project lives.

Can I access past project archives later?

Yes. Completed project spaces stay in your library, fully searchable. Find a past deliverable, a reference, or a client's feedback by searching for it, even years later.