#tr18hours

A quick Google search can show how creative the patterns can be. It's also a very traditional pattern that dates back to the Roman empire.

You can see this style of pavement in Brazil, too, but it's usually just geometric patterns like what you see in Copacabana.

The kind of designs you find in Lisbon are way more creative and interesting. Sometimes, you can only see the patterns when you look down at the streets from a building. My favorite is probably the one in Chiado, close to the Camões Square.

The process of creating this image for our TR Remix series was a bit laborious, but really simple. I just started with a good clean photo of pavement and, using a line drawing of the Twisted Rope logo as a guide, copied and pasted the blocks a few at a time (and sometimes one by one) and moved them around until the logo was finished.

It's actually pretty similar to how the cobblestone designs are made, except Adobe Photoshop saved me the trouble of actually breaking stones.

After that, I added the people and the lighting effects for a bit of a sunset atmosphere.

I like the way the piece turned out. It shows a bit of what I like about Lisbon: It's warm, bright and a bit grimy.

Explore the TR Remix series.

STAYING CONNECTED IN A MODERN COMPANY

Companies now don't follow a traditional style of communicating within an organization. You no longer need to be confined to a desk to stay connected. Although we're given more options of how we communicate, it's important to have the right tools to maintain the experience of staying connected.

It's difficult to replicate the in-person interactions using devices. But, with the proper set of tools, companies can mimic the experience to create effective communicators.

PLATFORMS TO ADD TO YOUR COMMUNICATION TOOLBAG

We use several platforms to make sure we stay transparent and connected. This isn't a one-size-fits-all model. Rather, it's an example of how utilizing different platforms together can help your company streamline the communication process.

SLACK

Our day-to-day platform is Slack, a digital workspace that brings all our communication together in one place.

The platform has become an integrated part of Twisted Rope. It's a place where most of our collaboration and group communication happens. Everything happens in real-time and is accessible to anyone.

GOTOMEETING

Although Slack is great for our day-to-day communicating, we also like seeing who's on the other side of the screen. For that, we use GoToMeeting.

The GoToMeeting experience allows multiple users around the world to be together and see one another eye-to-eye.

ASANA

Without a proper project management system, it's easy for tasks to slip through the cracks. We are able to function as a team because of Asana.

With our company scattered across various time zones, Asana has become a staple to maintaining order within Twisted Rope. The transparency keeps all team members aware of who's responsible for what and when. There is no grey area and it keeps the expectations honest.

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These are examples of what works best for us. To find the right platforms, we focused on what could help us function as a single entity despite being in multiple places. With that in mind, we shaped the technology around our organization's needs.

Our way of communicating has evolved, but it doesn't mean we don't miss the in-person interactions. If anything, these platforms help ensure that we maintain the feeling of in-person interactions.

My first thought was that my experience with Twisted Rope would be coming to an end with me moving back to the old continent. However, after some discussions with Greg Norton, our president at Twisted Rope, and the rest of the team, the opportunity of having a project manager in Europe, servicing our European clients in their own time zones, made perfect sense.

I have been in Paris for over 2 years and have enjoyed every moment of it!

I won't lie, there are times that are more difficult than others and moments that prove to be challenging, but, overall, it's been a great and positive experience that I wouldn't change for anything.

Having a 18-hour work day allows us to get so much more done.

When I log off to enjoy my evening (Paris time), our resources are still working to help move our projects forward, whether it is for clients in the United Kingdom, in France, or somewhere else in the world. So, when I log back in the morning (to quite a few Slack pings, emails, tasks and items to review), I am able to directly provide updates, designs and links to our client teams here in Europe. This is making us much more efficient.

Due to the different time zones, I spend my morning communicating with our staff in Europe and my afternoon with our staff in Buffalo. The first group being smaller in size, I am able to focus on specific projects that might require more concentration and I dedicate larger chunks of time to those.

My afternoon is a lot more "active" -- it's my window to get in touch with most of our people, and, therefore, it's a lot of back and forth, calls and checking in with colleagues and clients.

The downside is that everyone else's day doesn't end when mine does. It's, then, sometimes difficult to step away from the computer, knowing that some things are unfinished and that the team might be left with questions that won't be answered until my next business day.

With time, I think both myself and our entire team have gotten so much better at optimizing those 18-hour days, making sure we make the most of it and address any potential pain points to find solutions that work for all of us.

Maybe one day we'll move to a 24-hour work day?

I currently work from my home in Brantford, Ontario -- about halfway between Buffalo, N.Y., and Toronto.

Naturally, one of the biggest benefits for me is the easy commute. I get to work from the comfort of my own home and consider myself very lucky for that. Overall, I really enjoy working from home.

With that being said, there are definitely some aspects I miss out on. I do miss the face-to-face interactions with my co-workers and it can be a little quiet here at times. The distance can also be a plus, though, because I don't have any distractions from others when I'm working, which makes me very productive.

A typical day for me is waking up, grabbing a coffee, feeding my dog and getting comfortable in my home office. I start work at 8 a.m. and, since the Buffalo office is not open yet, I contact Sybille in France first. From 8 to 8:30 a.m. I plan what my day is going to look like while waiting for the Buffalo office to come online. Afterwards, I work until 1 p.m., take an hour lunch and then continue working until around 5 p.m.

I had never considered working remotely before being employed at Twisted Rope because I had never really considered it a possibility for me. I had always thought of people who work from home as people with their own businesses or CEOs that had the flexibility to do so. I consider myself very lucky to have the opportunity to work for a great company while working from home.

Although I am in a different country, it never really feels like my co-workers are too far away. I have the benefit of being in the same time zone as the Buffalo office and with Twisted Rope's internal messaging system, Slack, I can message anyone who is online. We also have regular conference calls and meetings. I am definitely connected to my colleagues.

I love my visits to the Buffalo office and I try to work there around once a month. I use this time to reconnect with co-workers and talk about projects face-to-face. I feel it's important to have facetime with the people I work with and my quick visits do just that.

The lack of face-to-face interactions and working remotely can be difficult, but the best thing for someone to have is a supportive team, like the one I have at Twisted Rope. I was lucky because Twisted Rope already had people working in remote positions when I started, so there was already a system in place for that.

At our agency, we also have open and transparent communication between supervisors and co-workers. I am always comfortable reaching out and messaging my co-workers, which makes getting work done easier.

Finding what style works for you when working from home is very important as well. I have found that working at my desk most days best for me, while working at a coffee shop sometimes is a nice change of scenery. I have lots of plants in my office to brighten the space up and I truly love the space I have created for myself.

When the clock strikes 9 a.m. in an east coast city in the United States and most people are just settling in at the office, grabbing a cup of coffee, checking their morning email and seeing what's on tap for a particular day at work, our team in Europe already has a 6-and-a-half-hour head start. When 5 p.m. rolls around in these same cities and people are winding down, our business day continues from our west coast office in the Silicon Beach corridor in Los Angeles.

Our agency continues to grow and grow. Our main production headquarters is in Buffalo, N.Y., in the Tri-Main Center, but our staff is all over.

To better serve our clients, we realized a few years back we needed to be in locales around the world, comfortably situated in time zones where we could always be available. We first expanded to Europe and Canada and, earlier this year, opened our Los Angeles office in the WeWork Manhattan Beach Towers.

Aside from Buffalo and Los Angeles, our staff around the world can be found in Paris, France; Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Toronto, Ontario.

It was through this idea of a global staff working together as one we formed our new identity as our company rebranded in 2016 as Twisted Rope. We were a diverse team from a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different parts of the world all intertwined. We wanted our name to reflect who we are as we continued to grow.

We "twist" the fibers of all the different facets of digital development to work as one collective unit to bring ideas for clients from an original concept through to completion. Our graphic designers, motion graphic artists, developers, digital strategists, UX/UI specialists, project managers and management staff all work together in a unique way and on the same wavelength.

It's fun to be a part of this each and every day, particularly as we are beginning to delve into how we can use augmented reality and virtual reality in digital marketing campaigns for clients. Learn more on how to get started with augmented reality and what it can do for your brand.

Follow along today as we bring you this glimpse inside Twisted Rope on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twine, our creative space and blog.