Sitting on my desktop is a folder called “Ideas”, inside you will find all of my random design ideas. Whenever I had a burst of inspiration and created a concept, a logo, or a graphic that I had no use for, I kept it in my ideas folder.  I do this so later down the road when I am working on something I can look inside my idea folder to find…ideas. I might use one, or one might give me an idea for something else. An idea folder can be a great source of inspiration, and there is no better place for inspiration then your own work.

So how do you come up with the concepts and such for your ideas folder in the first place? Well, some times I will see something that inspires me and then I get the sudden urge to design something. So I open up Fireworks and have at it. However I may not have any use for my concept or logo right at that moment. So rather then just deleting it, I put it away for later.

So the point of this was to stress the fact that every designer should have some place for their ideas.  Be it a “Ideas” folder or a sketch book or whatever it might be, it’s important to have one. Let your work be the fuel for your work.