If you had told me that three months after entering the agency world as a graphic designer, we'd be at the beginning of a pandemic and would have to work remotely for months to come, I definitely wouldn't have believed you. I joined ruckus early in my career, excited for everything I was about to learn in this new role.

Fast forward almost seven years, and now about 1,000 miles away from the office that sparked my purpose, I'm still remote. And I've come to realize that working remotely has given me a deeper appreciation for everything I've created over the years, and for every person I've been fortunate enough to call a colleague.

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The Work You Don't See Every Day

As a graphic designer, there is no cooler feeling than seeing something you created out in the world. No matter the format.

An annual report you spent hours perfecting, finally in your hands, bound seamlessly, the once-flat magenta shapes now catching the light off a glossy varnish. Logos you designed for communities, printed on signage and collateral. Business cards glistening with a gold foil finish. Digital courtside banners for Jacksonville's first women's professional basketball team, with Shaq sitting right next to them. (No big deal.)

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Not being able to physically see or interact with the work I create day to day makes it that much more special when I finally can.

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The Faces in Boxes on Zoom

The same is true for the time I spend with my colleagues.

Our annual retreats give us the chance to spend real, quality time together, and I've noticed that it strengthens our personal bonds just as much as our professional ones, which makes for stronger collaboration and better work in the long run. Brief video calls and sidebar chats with coworkers I only see in person once or twice a year have become something I've grown to appreciate in a way I don't think I would if my day-to-day looked like everyone else's in the office.

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What Distance Has Taught Me

Working remotely could have made me feel disconnected from the work and the people who make ruckus what it is. Instead, it's done the opposite. Distance has stripped away the routine of just walking past a printed piece on someone's desk or catching a colleague in the office, and in doing so, it's made every one of those moments count more when they happen.

I used to think proximity was what made a team, or a body of work, feel real. Now I know it's attention. And absence, it turns out, is one of the best teachers of attention.

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Written by Alex Wall, Art Director

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