The brief

Made on spec for a magazine feature on remote-work burnout, as a portfolio piece to pitch a specific editor. The brief was simple — the article was about isolation and burnout — but every reference image for "remote work" is the same laptop-and-coffee-cup shot, which says nothing about how it actually feels.

Direction

• Had to avoid laptops, coffee cups, and home-office desks entirely — the obvious clichés
• Needed to hold up in both full color and grayscale, since the magazine sometimes prints editorial spreads in black-and-white
• Had to read clearly at thumbnail size for the online version of the piece

The approach

Skipped the obvious workspace imagery entirely and went with a figure dissolving into a grid of video-call windows — a visual metaphor for feeling flattened into a rectangle of yourself, rather than literal desk imagery.

Thumbnailed three directions before committing. a cluttered inbox metaphor, a maze made of notification badges, and the video-call dissolve. The dissolve read clearest at small size, which mattered since it needed to work as a thumbnail online.