You can be separated by distance and still easily use paper to quickly iterate through ideas. 37signals themselves do this - they're geographically distributed yet use Sharpies to think through rough interface ideas:
All of my freelance clients in the last few years have been startups in the Bay Area (where I live) so I understand all of those reasons and the benefits of proximity. Hell, I wouldn't have moved up here if I hadn't read Hackers And Painters in 2005 - I wanted to be where the action was. But I've been slowly doing less and less on-site work and have gotten to the point where I don't do much more than weekly meetings and not even that with some clients, so I can't help but realize that I could've technically been anywhere in the world for all intents and purposes. And these aren't low-paying entry level portfolio builders either, it's real paying work with the same challenges as always.
So again, are the reasons for working with a local designer more important than overall skill and portfolio?
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/466-sketching-with-a-sharpie
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1880-the-different-sketch-sty...
All of my freelance clients in the last few years have been startups in the Bay Area (where I live) so I understand all of those reasons and the benefits of proximity. Hell, I wouldn't have moved up here if I hadn't read Hackers And Painters in 2005 - I wanted to be where the action was. But I've been slowly doing less and less on-site work and have gotten to the point where I don't do much more than weekly meetings and not even that with some clients, so I can't help but realize that I could've technically been anywhere in the world for all intents and purposes. And these aren't low-paying entry level portfolio builders either, it's real paying work with the same challenges as always.
So again, are the reasons for working with a local designer more important than overall skill and portfolio?