Edward Boatman • Jun 16th
Google Drive is a household name. It’s fast, familiar, and free, which is exactly why so many creative teams rely on it to store and share their brand assets. At first, it worked. Upload a few files, drop them into folders, share the link, done.
But as your team grows, the cracks start to show.
What started as a convenient way to organize assets becomes a tangled mess of nested folders, access requests, and outdated files. For creative teams tasked with moving quickly and staying on brand, that friction isn’t just frustrating. It slows everything down.
It always starts the same way: You’re halfway through a design sprint when someone pings you for a file.
You dive into Google Drive and suddenly you’re five folders deep, trying to guess whether “final_final_logo_v2.ai” is the most current version. It’s frustrating, sure, but for growing teams, this friction isn’t just annoying. It’s a serious bottleneck.
At first, Drive works. It’s fast, accessible, and simple. But as creative output scales, more team members, more assets, more stakeholders , the cracks show. The problem lies in the structure of Google Drive. It’s a structured folder solution, which is amazing for documents but not necessarily for creative content. Here’s why:
Creative assets don’t live in one place. They live in Design > Final > Client > Social > V2 > Final_v3 (use this one). As the volume of assets grows, so does the complexity of your folder structure, and that slows everyone down.
Sure, Drive has search. But creative teams need visual clarity. Thumbnails often don’t load. File names are vague. Without metadata or tagging, you’re forced to open and preview multiple files just to find the right one. Plus, even if you can find what you’re looking for in a visual file, you have no context around how to best use it.
Say a marketer finds the right image. Do they know how to use it? Or when not to? Google Drive can’t tell that story because content and usage context live in different places (if they exist at all).
As a designer or marketer, chances are you’re fielding questions on where to locate files, just like Chuck Moxley, a 4X CMO and fractional CMO in the B2B SaaS space.
“I get this question All. The. Time. Sellers never can find the right version of decks and collateral and regardless of where we store them (e.g., Google Drive folder titled "latest collateral"). I still get endless Slack messages asking for the current X and latest Y.”
Drive relies on the right people having the right link at the right time. That means designers are stuck managing permissions or answering “Can I get access?” messages, over and over again.
This constant stop-start rhythm takes a toll.
Every unnecessary click or request breaks creative flow, and that comes at a cost. Designers lose momentum. Marketers make guesses. Sales sends out off-brand decks. These inefficiencies create tension and slow down execution.
“Creativity thrives in clarity not chaos.”
Start a free trial and transfer your Google Drive assets into a Lingo account today.
If your team is outgrowing Google Drive, you’re probably feeling the friction. Here’s what modern creative workflows demand:
Browse assets by sight, not by file name. Thumbnails, tags, and categories make finding the right file fast and intuitive.
Brand guidance should live alongside the asset it applies to, not buried in a separate PDF or Slack thread. With the Lingo WYSIWYG editor, it’s easy to apply headers, text, and even links alongside your visual assets.
Empower others to find what they need, when they need it, without bugging your creative team. Digital asset management systems allow for seamless display of a single asset with multiple file-type capabilities.
Whether you’re sharing assets internally or externally, you should control visibility and allow stakeholders to get the format they need without manual intervention.
Lingo was built specifically for creative and brand teams who’ve outgrown folder-based systems like Google Drive. While Drive focuses on storing files, Lingo focuses on how those files are used, shared, and understood by the people who need them.
Instead of digging through folders, teams browse visually through Kits. Instead of guessing how to use an asset, they see the context right next to the content. And instead of relying on designers to manage file access or format requests, stakeholders can self-serve with confidence.
Lingo doesn’t just store your assets; it gives your brand a system to scale.
Lingo’s Kits let you group assets with descriptions, tags, and usage guidance. It’s everything Google Drive can’t do, organized by how you actually think. Kits are searchable, helping your teams to pull up exactly what they need, when they need it.
Need to share your brand assets with multiple groups, each with slightly different requirements? Maybe your media partners need the standard logo files plus an approved messaging sheet, while regional buyers in Arizona and West Virginia need the same core assets but with state-specific labeling.
Lingo’s branded Portals make it easy to share a consistent foundation — logos, guidelines, templates — while also tailoring access to specific audiences. You can manage who sees what with public, private, or password-protected links, giving each group exactly what they need, without compromising control.
Lingo integrates directly with Google Drive. You don’t have to start over; just import what you have in Google Drive and organize it the right way in Lingo.
Start a free trial and transfer your Google Drive assets into a Lingo account today.
Before switching to Lingo, many teams were stuck in the same cycle: files buried in chaotic Drive folders, constant access requests, and brand assets being used incorrectly across departments. Sound familiar?
One creative director at a growing B2B SaaS company described it best:
“Our Drive folders were in chaos. Sales was using outdated decks, social couldn’t find the right logos, and designers spent their time digging for files instead of creating. Since switching to Lingo, everyone knows exactly where to go, and they actually use the right assets.”
For consumer brands, the challenge is often brand consistency at scale. One brand designer shared:
“Lingo helps us tell the story behind every asset. Our brand finally feels cohesive, and best of all, our design team isn’t acting like a help desk anymore.”
These teams didn’t just organize their files. They unlocked creative flow, brand control, and clarity across the company.
Google Drive wasn’t built for creatives. Lingo was.
If you’re ready to stop losing time, files, and brand consistency, it’s time to switch. Start your 30-day trial to experience the difference Lingo can make with your digital asset files today.