Organizing Medical Illustrations with Daminion

ADInstruments provides data acquisition and analysis solutions for research and education in the life sciences. The company develops hardware and software tools that help researchers and educators capture, measure, and interpret physiological data.

In 2017, ADInstruments’ team of medical illustrators adopted Daminion to organize digital assets, support secure multi-user collaboration, and improve search efficiency.

Before implementing Daminion, ADInstruments’ medical illustrators stored digital assets on a shared network drive. Searching for files was time-consuming, especially across projects containing multiple file types.

Their library included a broad range of media: primarily vector images but also videos, documents, and subtitle files. Editable Illustrator and Photoshop files were frequently exported as SVGs or PNGs for use on websites.

Without a centralized system or embedded metadata, Windows File Explorer couldn’t meet the team’s organizational needs. They required a more structured solution to manage metadata, categorize files, and control access during collaborative editing.

With Daminion in place, the team’s workflow became more structured and efficient. The check-in/check-out system ensures that only one person edits a file at a time, preventing version conflicts.

The ability to embed detailed metadata and organize assets by category or project made managing thousands of files much easier. Instead of relying solely on keywords, illustrators can now use Daminion’s hierarchical categories to sort assets by subject, lesson, or type.

Using Daminion Day-to-Day

When I need to modify an existing image, I check out the editable Illustrator or Photoshop file from Daminion.
After making updates, I export PNGs or SVGs, check the file back in, and add metadata such as the lesson name or relevant collection — for example, biology or chemistry.

This process keeps our assets organized and easy to access.