Just a recommendation...

Granted the idea is to go and spend some time looking through business card/logo/letterhead/design books to gather a plethora of resources and to build ideas, I think it should be done anyway.

I'll admit, my first few trips to Barnes & Noble as a design student were filled with doubt. I just didn't get why I was there and what good it was going to do me to look at work that...well...exists now. I couldn't comprehend how work that had been done already would help me with MY NEW projects.

Well, as I walked to the art section in that same Barnes & Noble today--three years later--I understood why I was there. I was and continue to be on a mission. Even though I was only there for an hour, the creative juices began to flow.

And so my recommendation to underclassmen, and to others who still haven't quite figured out what research will do for you, is to spend as much time building your chops by researching in places like Barnes & Noble.

Now, for those of you who are seniors and/or understand the need to research, I recommend this:
Be amazed. Be astonished. Be humble. Think about how many art books there are around you, and how many of those books pertain to you as a designer. Then with all of that floating around upstairs, understand that you, yourself, can use those resources to your benefit.

Personally, I have started spending money that I don't have on design books. I know that they're that important, and one day, I know they will have payed for themselves.

Whoever said 5:30 in the afternoon is too early for a revelation was out of their mind.
Stay tuned...