The internet is still a relatively new medium and I’m sure a lot of web designers are like me and actually learnt design skills from more traditional media, often print - or in my case as a fine artist.
This training tends to lead you into keeping a sketchbook of ideas and often big folders of reference material which usually amounts to a big pile of magazine clippings, bits of food wrapper, funky clothing labels and just about anything that catches your eye in someway. And this habit does seem to still be prevalent amongst web designers today.
For me though, I just don’t get it. I love looking around at new design and getting inspired by what other people have done - but I don’t a benefit in filing it away as if being able to reference back to it is somehow going to improve my designs. I work on the belief that my brain is formulating all the designwork I see on a day-to-day basis and I’m sub-consciously picking up on developing trends, techniques and good practices, but over time only the strongest, most pertinent streams remain at the front of my mind. Like an unconscious design filter.
So when I start on a design, I feel actually more creative because I’m not running the risk of copying an existing design to slavishly. I have a somewhat established design style that is fairly paired down, with a preference for simple and clean layouts. Ironically the design I’m often most impressed by is the total extreme of dense, complex, heavily textured layouts - and I feel the way I work pulls in certain aspects of this design style but in a way that compliments my own style.