Past Themes
2024 Theme: Time
Time shapes our stories and ideas, connecting insights from the past to possibilities for the future.
Working Draft’s fifth edition invites you to join us on our exploration of time. Whether you feel it’s passing you by or slowly dragging on, time is a constant that brings evolution and growth — as well as change and loss. It’s infinite, but we can run out of it. Time is a reminder that while the past shapes us and the future calls us, the present is where we truly live.
2023 Theme: Nature
Since Working Draft launched in 2020, we’ve been reminded of how easily humbled we are by nature. Nature has the power to overturn our lives and call us back to ourselves.
That’s why we chose the theme of “nature” for Working Draft’s fourth issue — we wanted to explore the ebb and flow of our relationships with the world around us.
In this year’s articles, we venture into the wilderness of our environments and ourselves. We try to understand our place in the world and our role in preserving it for years to come.
2022 Theme: Community
Since Working Draft launched three years ago, the way we interact with our communities has shifted significantly. The contributors to this year’s issue of Working Draft spent two years working and getting to know each other virtually. This experience changed our idea of what a community is and can be.
That’s why we chose “community” for the theme of our third issue. We wanted to look outwards, rather than inwards. We’re not built to live our lives alone. We’re meant to share, explore, collaborate, dream, hope, and laugh together.
The articles in this issue explore the communities that break us, save us, change us, and welcome us. We explore the communities we have come from and the ones we’re seeking out and creating.
2021 Theme: The New Normal
The theme of Working Draft’s second issue, “the new normal,” seemed to have fallen in our laps.
In a year filled with unknowns and limitations, we’ve all struggled to find our way through a world without instructions.
The pandemic has forced us to grapple with a hard truth: “normal” is not stationary.
So while the “new normal” to some has become a buzzword and cliché, the theme inspired stories and sparked conversations that are anything but. Just as diamonds are created under intense pressure, so too are strong, resilient, and beautiful things forged from trial and difficulty.
The 43 articles in this issue explore how people overcome change in unexpected and profound ways.
2020 Theme: Truth
Never again will Working Draft be such a relevant title for our magazine. As communicators, our contributors worked to define what Working Draft’s voice and structure would be for future issues.
Our first theme, Truth, was one word interpreted in over 50 different ways. All good communications and stories begin with at least a kernel of truth — which, given the “fake news” era, is a constant topic of conversation. We wanted to tell stories that spark conversations among our readers about personal truths and absolute truth in the world.
Right now, amidst the global pandemic, people are looking for truth more than ever — on their social media feeds while they’re working from home, in the media they consume to fill their need for human connection, and from their governments, where they look for constant updates on the shifting rules that govern their daily lives.