[ejpastorino]

Designing takes some time to understand if you don't have "innate good taste".

I really really recommend the book Design for Hackers by David Kadavy: http://designforhackers.com/ It gives you a really good idea of most parts of design and its history. Once you've read that you should then look for things you like how they are designed and try to understand the decisions made by the author.

IMHO, learning by copying works good on design.

[kadavy]

Hey, thanks for the mention!

[bjz]

I would also add that the study of art and design history was the key thing that liberated me from the fear of copying. Extremely valuable.