Here’s to 2016
Are you ready to relive the best and worst moments of 2016? Well good news, friends, we've got your cheat sheet right here! Beutler Ink compiled the biggest stories of the year—from Donald Trump to Dat Boi to Stranger Things to... well... back to Donald Trump—and handed them over to talented illustrator Niv Bavarsky to bring to life. The Garden of Earthly Delights-inspired graphic was featured in dozens of media outlets including HuffPo, Gizmodo, Design Taxi, El Pais (Spain), The Bergerie (France), Vinegret (Russia), and A Day Magazine (Hong Kong).
As the possibly apocryphal Chinese curse has it: “May you live in interesting times.” The past year has been many things—we can start with astonishing, bizarre, and confounding—and interesting is certainly somewhere on that long list of adjectives. So whether it's a gift or a curse, you should be thankful you were here to experience it! And you might also be thankful that, once again, your ol' pals at Beutler Ink have compiled the most memorable moments from an interesting year into an exceptional illustration!
You can click above to explore the giant graphic—but set some time aside before you dive in, because there's a whole lot of action to look at. You can click here to purchase a copy. And you can also scroll further down for a behind-the-scenes look at how our team executed the project from start to finish.
Enjoy, Beutler Ink
Behind the scenes
As always, we began compiling possible news items, cultural events, and notable personalities for inclusion as soon as the new year kicked off. Sadly, one of the first additions to our list was David Bowie, who passed away in early January.
As the year continued, our RIP list just got longer and longer. We regret that we weren't able to find space for Elie Wiesel, Glenn Frey, Morley Safer and many others. But our graphic does include a record-setting—for us, anyway—27 RIP depictions, including a last-minute addition of astronaut and hero John Glenn. (Not all of our RIP entries are necessarily "heroic." Fidel Castro is one of the most significant figures of the 20th century, so we had to include him despite his awful record of repression. To paraphrase the Twitter adage, depictions =/= endorsements.)
By October, we had a massive Google Doc full of possible items for inclusion, and it was time to decide on a backdrop. We briefly considered a Rio Olympics setting and a Westworld-inspired milieu, but after a team member suggested Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights," there was really no other option. The famous triptych was in the news back in February thanks to a high-resolution interactive exhibition of the work, and the painting seems just as relevant (and haunting) now as did when it made its debut around 500 years ago.
Design
With the key content components in place, it was time to move into illustration. Our previous "Here's to" graphics each had slightly different flavor thanks to the diverse illustrators we used—Mario Zucca in 2013, Noah Smith in 2014, and Luke McGarry in 2015. This year, we recruited the extremely talented Niv Bavarsky, a Los Angeles-based artist whose playful work has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, and Bleacher Report. Niv's drawings weave together surrealism and caricature (among other elements) so he was an absolutely perfect fit for this Boschian undertaking.
His first full sketch of the graphic (above) completely nailed the concept, and we knew we were on the cusp of something great. But the final graphic he sent across exceeded our already-high expectations. Everything from the color scheme to the character depictions to the visual cohesion is absolutely perfect. We're just thrilled with this graphic and hope you love it as much as we do.
(And please get in touch with us if you want to create an equally stunning piece of content.)
An illustrated answer key is included below, along with a full list of people and events included in the graphic. How many can you identify?
Harambe RIP
Chyna RIP
Rob Ford RIP
Leonard Cohen RIP
Prince RIP
Vanity RIP
David Bowie RIP
Gene Wilder RIP
Alan Rickman RIP
Jo Cox RIP
Merle Haggard RIP
Phife Dawg RIP
Muhammad Ali RIP
Garry Shandling RIP
Janet Reno RIP
Fidel Castro RIP
Pat Summitt RIP
Sharon Jones RIP
José Fernández RIP
Arnold Palmer RIP
Harper Lee RIP
Anton Yelchin RIP
Florence Henderson RIP
Gwen Ifill RIP
Antonin Scalia RIP
Nancy Reagan RIP
Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando
Black Lives Matter movement
Dallas PD sniper victims
Oakland warehouse fire
No Man's Sky
Chicago Cubs finally win!
Vin Scully retires
Candace Parker and the Sparks win WNBA championship
Kobe Bryant retires
Von Miller and the Broncos win Super Bowl
Hodor holding a door
Colin Kaepernick takes knee during anthem
Simone Biles + Final Five
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Cleveland Cavaliers win NBA championship
Syrian refugees
Squirtle [Pokemon]
X-Files
Facebook Live and Chewbacca mask lady become popular
Member Berries
Finding Dory
Kim & Kanye had a rough year
La Croix beverage
Beyoncé's Lemonade
Frank Ocean's Blonde
Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book
Tracer from Overwatch
Ghostbusters relaunch
EASTER EGG you'll have to find yourself. No hints!
Issa Rae on Insecure
Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda is omnipresent
Pidgey [Pokemon]
Super hero movies are one big super hero brawl
Atlanta is a hit
Westworld intrigues
Eevee [Pokemon]
Eleven from Stranger Things
D.W. Read's Arthur meme
Hulk Hogan's lawsuit crushes Gawker
Negan terrorizes on Walking Dead
here come dat boi
Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and K-2SO from Rogue One
President Obama visits Cuba and Laos
The ghost of Twitter trolls
Kim Kardashian's stolen jewelry
Kylie's lip kit
Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar for his role in The Revenant
The Pen Pineapple Apple Pen guy
Luke Cage
Elizabeth Holmes peddles snake oil
Marcia Clark, O.J. Simpson, and Robert Shapiro
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones on fire
RIP Vine
Yahoo has a fire sale
RIP The Toast
Flint, Michigan still doesn't have clean water
Steven Avery in prison jumpsuit
Standing Rock protests
Michael Phelps
Katie Ledecky
Ryan Lochte
Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez celebrate Leicester City's first Premier League title
Kevin Durant joins Golden State Warriors after their Finals loss
Ma'a Nonu of New Zealand's record-setting All Blacks rugby team
Viral photo of woman arrested while protesting police brutality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Malheur Standoff led by Ammon Bundy
Celebrity splits: Johnny Depp & Amber Heard, Taylor Swift & Calvin Harris, Brangelina
Seven states vote to legalize marijuana
Pokémon ball
Bulbasaur [Pokémon]
Zika-carrying mosquito
Conor McGregor / Nate Diaz bout
David Cameron resigns as Prime Minister after Brexit vote
Theresa May becomes UK Prime Minister
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory blocks bathroom access
Huge crowd of Bernie supporters
Bernie Sanders
Roger Ailes leaves Fox News in wake of sexual harassment claims
Water bottle flip
Damn Daniel back at it again with the white Vans
Ken Bone
FBI investigates Hillary Clinton's email server
Nate Silver never rules out a Trump win
Epicurean Trump supporter Scott Adams
Rudy Giuliani rages
Sean Hannity find loves
Melania cribs Michelle's speech
Hillary Clinton
Huma Abedin
Anthony Weiner remains indecent
Steve Bannon
Vice President-elect Mike Pence
Ivanka Trump
Lovable Pepe the Frog transformed into Evil Alt-Right mascot
Reince Priebus tries to stage manage
Julian Assange
Vladimir Putin
President-elect Donald Trump
"Grab them by the pussy"
#Pizzagate
John Glenn RIP
Hyper Light Drifter