Everything is inspiration, no matter where it takes you. Dead ends don't exist, everything will influence your work on some level. This is especially true across mediums and styles. If an idea doesn't work for one style test it out on another.
Failures are lessons learned. Doesn't necessarily mean that your work is terrible, there are things you can take away. Ideas are transferrable. Concepts or images can be used or reused. Everything you see, magazine clips, television, advertisements, books, anything you see you record.
If you feel like you've hit a dead end in you work, or your concepts seem stale work back around to the beginning. You'll approach your first style or concept with all the information and images you absorbed over the project. This will make you see your work in a whole new light.
Follow every lead, every interesting image or concept. Once you feel you've hit a dead end, work back from the beginning applying all your new images and concepts to your work.
