Section 2 · Working Practice

Version Control as Creative Practice

Definition

Deliberately saving and labeling successive versions of a project so past states are recoverable and the evolution of the work is visible.

Why it matters

Creative work is nonlinear — you need the freedom to try something risky and revert if it fails, without losing what worked.

Example

Keeping v01 through v05 of a layout rather than overwriting the same file, so you can compare early and late choices.

Teaching note

Requiring the version sequence as a submitted deliverable, rather than the final file alone, converts this from advice into practice.