Were you at The Designr Academy's first workshop - Elevating Your Logos with Rivkie Lieberman?
If so, go you! It was so incredibly valuable.
If not, I've got a golden nugget for you that Rivkie mentioned in the class -
Stay up to date on design trends.
While design concepts should be timeless, visual and execution styles change over time and if you're using 2015's styles it will show in your work. And the best way to produce fresh, modern work? Consume fresh, modern work. When you see a lot of new designs you begin to create work like them. So be careful where you look for design inspo!
Rivkie's recommendation: Under Consideration's logo design blog, Brand New.
It costs just $20/year to subscribe and you get access to professionally-reviewed branding projects and case studies. Also valuable are the community comments on the bottom where professional designers give their opinion on what they liked and disliked in the design concepts and executions above. Interestingly, the author of the blog isn't always unendingly positive in his reviews - he's extremely honest about which aspects he likes and which ones he feels could use some work to improve and why.
My plan is to, IYH, read 1 case study every day to keep myself up to date and inspired to create great work. Join me?