A new year has just begun. It’s a time for reflection and for setting goals in order to improve our lives and ourselves. This year, I decided to extend my resolutions to include my life as a designer. Here are some design goals for 2016:

Collect color palettes, layouts, templates, logos, and designs that inspire. The beautiful thing about art and design is that different fields can influence each other. By looking at what others are doing I can learn and grow as a designer.

Creating designs in my free time allows for experimentation of new methods and mediums without time constraints. It keeps the creative juices flowing and allows me to approach client work from new and interesting perspectives.

Design combines art and purpose. The best designs I’ve seen have solid underlying concepts that riff off of universal ideas. Research is the base of a great concept, which is in turn the base of an innovative, impactful design.

What design resolutions are you making this year?