Workbenches ensure consistency across assets and across teams. Workbenches can be particularly useful if your organization operates in multiple offices and has dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees who may be using or creating visual content for you. Let’s review what a workbench is, including why and how can it create value for your organization.
Workbench, Defined
A workbench is a digital toolkit of visual communication assets all created within a single unified visual language. From iconography to data visualizations to illustrations, this repository of imagery serves as the foundation of your organization’s visual content strategy.
Your team can pull elements from the workbench for use in visual communication pieces such as emails, landing pages, infographics, motion graphics, interactive content, and more. This saves time by ensuring that all visual content you create adheres to your established visual language.
What Every Workbench Needs
Since every organization’s mission, vision, and values are unique, we can’t provide a definitive list like, “every workbench needs a tree, a cat, and a computer.” We also can’t say exactly how many assets your workbench needs. While there are sensible choices like currency for finance, computers/hardware for tech, etc., every workbench should include whatever assets describe: your organization, its area of expertise, the problem it solves, its solutions, and its customers.
The ROI of a Workbench
You (or your boss) want to see the ROI behind any initiative. Data-driven decisions keep a business accountable and successful, no matter whether it’s analyzing the cost of office supplies or deciding to invest in a visual campaign.
Take a look at the numbers that can truly show results.
Great article. I’m a digital archivist/media manager specializing in visual communication assets. I’d be interested to know what workbenches are on the market or if they’re proprietary per project/client.
Hi Tony, thanks for your comment! There are stock assets available for purchase all over the web, but for a workbench that really meets your needs, we highly recommend custom work. Check out our post “3 Ways to Design Without Stock Images” for the download on why stock isn’t optimal for success.