Some of the best ways to grow in design.

I'm all for these great design links that people post on the site! I watch many a Youtube video to both entertain myself and learn great tips for design. There's something that I tend to forget far too often in designing that I don't see mentioned around here.

It may seem odd to post a thread focused on this, but one of the best ways to grow is to take a step back and look at great designs. We have a site filled with extremely talented individuals at our fingertips, and I think it's important to use that to it's fullest.

Take some time to look at a design that you really like. Appreciate it, and start to analyze it. It doesn't take long, much shorter than it would take to read this forum post, in fact. Why is it that you like that design? How did they make it? Take a closer look at the design. If you're new to design, maybe start with something minimal and build from there.

Pretty soon this becomes a habit. A complex and beautiful design filled with small strokes and complex gradients suddenly seems achievable. Everything here is made by hand, and it's almost as though you can take a great design and view it as the strokes, shapes, and essences that went into the overall beautiful image.

In my early stages of design, Photoshop was all I knew. This practice has not only has helped me grow as a versatile designer, but has even helped me learn an entirely new program to achieve good vector work.

I just thought I'd share, considering how much of a help it's been to me. Hopefully this encourages you as it does me.

Yeah, I agree. It's a habit that I need to start using, since I'm new to this whole thing, there's tons I could learn, and already am just by looking at other designs