My life was dark and cloudy in those awful days before Google Reader started delivering a steady stream of daily design inspiration. Back in the day, we used to get our content from sites like nytimes.com and we used to have to walk up hill to get it…both ways…in the snow…

Now I’ve got it pretty sweet. Every time I open google reader I find myself overwhelmed by an ocean of incredible content to wade through. It doesn’t take very long to jar loose some new ideas when you’re flipping through the posts at such incredible gallery sites as Webcreme, Design You Trust, OMG Posters!, and Deviant Art.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

The downside of all this content is that every time I manage to execute a really cool design that I’m pretty proud of, there’s always this quiet nagging doubt in the back of my head: “Is this really mine? Am I good enough to have done this all by myself? Have I seen this before, and my subconscious is having more luck remembering where I saw it then the rest of my brain is?”

Be inspired without leeching

I suffer from the Blank Sheet of Paper Syndrome. My nascent career has been one giant tug-of-war between Fearing Failure on the one extreme, and Riding the Narrabeen of Creative Triumph on the other. The later is what sees me through the former (and the band plays on…)

At the start of the really big projects, there’s always that sheer moment of plain-white-sheet terror when everything on the desk (both physical and virtual) that can be tidied has been, every email is answered, the iTunes play list is set to run and the realization comes crashing in that it’s time to get down to business. When the cold reality of the design process stares you in the face, it’s only natural to hit the interwebs in search of inspiration to aid your design’s conception.

Step 1 (and Only)

By all means, soak up as much as you can. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Eventually (and it probably won’t be very long) the ideas will start to flow. The single best thing you can do is spend some good quality time with the images, or websites, or logos or whatever…take a metaphorical deep mental breath of the whole lot of it and the put it away for an hour while you get to work, concentrating only on your design.

It’s okay to go back and look. By all means be inspired, but if you’re anything like me, the more you have right there in front of you to use as a visual reference, the less likely you are to make your design your own.

Step 1 on the road to a unique design that’s inspired by the work of others but wholly your own: When it’s time to start working, first stop looking at your inspiration.