Cloud storage and note-taking all in one free service
Google keep is the latest product from Google and the company’s answer to the popular Evernote program. Cloud storage and note taking are ever important features in our society. Google’s cloud service Drive now comes integrated onto several brand name pieces of high technology, for example large format printers and multi-function scanner, printer, cloud sharing services and machines. Naturally people want to integrate all their information into one place and Google Keep allows you to do jus that. You have all the note taking power of Evernote, but syncing power with your Google Drive account. Now you can store everything on one account without trying to remember if it was on Drive or Evernote. Audio notes, voice to text dictation, photos, screenshots, lists are all possible in Keep. Certainly Evernote has some advantage in more market testing and research for refining its product, but this is something we can expect from Google updates in the future. Google’s interwoven functions really are the star of your online file management.
One thing I like in Keep is the design. The Keep format has tiles similar to responsive tiles that are currently hot in web design. While you can’t yet sort these into notebooks like in Evernote you can preview images and the beginning of text documents to navigate through the stored files. For visual thinkers like designers and artists this function works fairly well. Right now all sorting into files has to take place on the Drive account though.
Useful for inspiration organizing in design
Keep or Evernote are both great resources that I recommend every designer have on their phone. You never know when you are going to be out somewhere and really be inspired by the typography on a sign or the layout of menu or the form of a logo. If you head to one of the many art openings in Austin, Keep can be a great way to store reference images, color schemes, or names of artists who’s work you want to research more. I upload these photos to my Drive for more permanent storage or when I need to download them as reference images. Life is an opportunity to be inspired. You could be getting a taco from a food truck and see someone in a really great shirt, and using Google Keep you take a photo and write text or audio notes about what you want to use it for. Have a great idea late  one night? Speak to Google Keep and take the idea with you in the cloud.
Mobile devices and image capturing will continue to become a larger part of our culture. Inventions like Google Keep and the upcoming Google Glass only highlight how much more that is being integrating into our daily social connectivity, professional work, and personal inspiration. If you live in the Austin metropolitan area you can see an example of how mobile devices have changed and influenced the art field by checking out the “Cell Phone Photo Gallery” at Co-Lab Gallery in Austin. I have some informal mobile device photography up from a rock climbing trip to Hueco Tanks. Products like Keep and Evernote help me keep track of which routes I’ve climbed or paths I have hiked and any notes on the experience I want to save. Inspiration can strike anywhere so I recommend Google Keep for capturing all of life’s little sparks.
