The first thing I picked up on for how they stay on the cutting edge of their craft is that they are in communication with their peers about the new trends, techniques, technology, etc. This kind of surprised me because I always think of businesses as being pretty cut throat, but it is nice to see people working together. I think it would help designers a lot to have web pages and magazines like these to help them communicate with one another. This way they can see what is working and what isn’t to keep their industry so progressive.
I also feel that people in the design industry are constantly critiquing themselves. One of the articles in the Smashing Magazine page was to talk about the worst design idea you had. I think it is healthy, up to a certain point, to be able to look at your work and find ways to improve it. Obviously you shouldn’t beat yourself up about the things you did wrong, but as long as you use it as a learning experience you will benefit in the long run. These websites and magazines are used for this purpose, so that a designer can compare what they are doing with what others in the industry are doing. It keeps things competitive and forward moving. This industry is a fast moving one because, in part, the people in the industry are propelling it forward with competitiveness.
Lastly, I think that an important part to being a designer is educating yourself on what is popular in society today, and realizing that what is popular changes from day to day. This is another reason why the design industry moves so fast. One of the images on the onextrapixel site used the terminator image from the Sci Phy movie. This tells me that they pull ideas, images, and so on from what is popular at the time to create more of a connection with their work, at least if they are working in sales.
On a side note; I like the picture Zach posted of the iceberg. I think that is a cool way of looking at all of this.
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