There are many ways designers stay inspired. One way to do so is just playing around with creative tools like Photoshop. One the rare occasion that our network/servers/internet access is down, I often open up Photoshop and try and create something from a blank canvas. This keeps the design skills sharpened and also helps spur thoughts when starting from scratch.

Here’s one I made during our last network outage:

Another good way to stay sharp and gain inspiration is to view the work of peers. Patrick Haney, a user-interface designer at Harvard University, has a flickr photo-set of great examples of good design. Every now and then I will come back to this photo-set to see what others are doing and get the creative juices going.