If you're serious about getting better at design, you need to become a curator! Start saving everything that inspires you, every asset and resource you can get your hands on, and every design experiment you make.
I highly recommend keeping the following 4 folders on your desktop at all times:
- /Inspiration
- /Resources
- /Experiments
- /Projects
It's important to keep your inspiration folder messy so you'll be forced to paw through more of it than you planned when you go diving. It's this kinetic process that helps you connect different thoughts and ideas from different time periods of your life — ones you never planned to mash up.
Fill it up with screenshots of websites, ads, book covers, posters, music albums, billboards, anything that inspires you — anything that jumps out at you in daily life and makes you think "hey that's pretty cool."
These folders will become the place you mine for ideas and momentum before you start any design project. Why start from scratch when you can start from abundance?