The coffee shop receipt that fixed my color palette problem

Last Tuesday I was stuck on a poster layout for a client and nothing felt right. I grabbed coffee at this little place in Portland and the barista handed me a receipt with this weird orange and teal combo on their logo. I stared at it for like 10 minutes and realized the issue was I was forcing saturated colors too evenly. That tiny 3 inch piece of paper taught me to use one bold color and let the other stay muted. Has anyone else pulled design inspiration from something totally random like a bus ticket or a candy wrapper? I'm curious if that's a common newbie trick or just me.

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betty_ward26d ago

Found my whole palette once from a faded motel sign in Reno.