Chris Whetzel recently completed this piece for Macworld focusing on the use of IMAP to link all of your email accounts/locations so that you can access all of your email from anywhere. 

And here are the sketches and some insight into Chris’s brainstorming:

The article spoke about how one would be able to access desktop email remotely via iphone.

The idea of mailboxes as a tin-can radio; the metaphor of advanced email technology communicating with antiquated methods.

This sketch focused on the consolidation aspect of the article and alluded to ease of use: Bingo!