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    2017: a year in Verge illustrations

    Illustration by Alex Castro, Alex Parkin, Garret Beard and William Joel

    Creating editorial illustrations can be challenging. Each illustration has to balance the message of the article, help pull in readers, showcase the talent of The Verge’s style (as well as the artists themselves), all while working toward an indefinite deadline. But it’s these challenges that make the illustrations so rewarding for us as creators — and hopefully you as the readers.

    Below is a collection of some of our best and favorite illustrations from 2017.

    January

    Signal Boost
    Illustrations by Cam Floyd


    February

    The VC-funded day job of a fringe online philosopher
    Illustration by William Joel


    March

    The Empathy Layer
    Illustration by Peter Steineck


    The Future Agency
    Illustration by William Joel


    April

    Massive Attack
    Illustrations by Jude Buffum


    Instant Recall
    Illustration by William Joel


    Sad!
    Illustrations by Peter Steineck 

    April 29th marked President Trump’s 100th day in office. We wrote five essays detailing the first 100 days and commissioned the talented Peter Steineck to create illustrations that would complement each essay and then to mix all those together for a great lede for the entire article. My favorite part of art directing a project is ideation, and working with Peter — pitching ideas back and forth, sharing sketches — was amazing. – William Joel


    Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

    Galaxy S8 wallpaper
    Created by William Joel

    Okay, so this wasn’t an illustration for an article, but nonetheless it is one of my favorite illustrations for The Verge. The idea was to create a custom wallpaper to show off the edges on the Samsung Galaxy S8 for our review. I spent a few hours playing around with the idea of “lines,” eventually landing on the final composition. Immediately it hit us that we should be creating a custom wallpaper for every phone review. And so far we’ve done just that. – William Joel

    Electric lines wallpaper

    The Replacements
    Illustration by William Joel


    May

    Flying taxis or futuristic tunnels won’t save us from the misery of traffic
    Illustration by James Bareham


    Free Chelsea
    Illustration by Eric Petersen


    One of Us
    Illustration by Eric Petersen


    How Anker is beating Apple and Samsung at their own accessory game
    Illustration by William Joel


    The Viral Machine
    Illustrations by Alex Castro


    Mossberg: The Disappearing Computer
    Illustration by William Joel


    June

    How close are we to building the virtual Big Market from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets?
    Illustration by William Joel


    July

    Opening Act
    Illustrations by Garret Beard


    Two-factor authentication is a mess
    Illustration by Garret Beard

    This is one of my favorite things I’ve crafted here at The Verge because I felt it nailed the most important part of an illustration: the idea/concept/magic sauce. I started out sketching a few ideas and kept coming back to this idea of stairs because, ya know, two step = two factor. It just felt right. After settling in on the idea I started on execution and thought an isometric illustration would be able to show the stairs best, and shipped this a few days after. – Garret Beard


    The Internet is Fucked (Again)
    Illustration by William Joel


    Gallery View
    Illustrations By Garret Beard


    August

    patreon-illustration

    The Women Who Sell Nudes on Patreon
    Illustration by Alex Castro

    This piece was one of my favorite from the year not because of its visual complexity, but for its depth of meaning in relation to the story. Patreon, a website many use to support artists they follow, has seen a growth in models using the service to trade nudes and private video sessions for money. It leads to a broader conversation of what is art or what is an acceptable type of content to be hosted on an artistic platform. The usage of a Venus statue in and response to it in our comments section related to this conflict. Many users were surprised to see a nude statue on our homepage, stating that it was NSFW. However, as some users pointed out, this isn’t any different than what you’d see in museums. What is and isn’t art? What is and isn’t appropriate? Where’s the line, not only for Patreon, but also for The Verge? – Alex Castro


    Internet Culture
    Illustrations by Garret Beard

    This piece is definitely in the top five most challenging projects I’ve done here. Character design was something I wanted to sharpen up on, and this project dropped on my lap and gave me that chance. I started with a ton of research, knowing each character was pretty unique. Sketching was next until I had a set of characters I felt were strong enough to get onto the screen. From there the process was straightforward with vectoring to motion to completion. – Garret Beard


    As net neutrality dies, one man wants to make Verizon pay for its sins
    Illustrations by Alex Castro


    You can’t fix something by ignoring it
    Illustration by William Joel


    Slimed
    Illustration by Alex Castro


    Looking for the future of technology among the startup strivers
    Illustrations by William Joel and Alex Castro


    How YouTube perfected the feed
    Illustration by William Joel


    September

    Searching for Help
    Illustrations by Eric Petersen


    Diary of a Concussion
    Illustrations by Alex Castro

    Liz Lopatto’s “Diary of a Concussion” beautifully and intimately recounts recovering from a biking accident that left her with a concussion. The story details what it’s like to wake up with a brain that is physically different from before, and how this impacted how she interacted with the world around her. I wanted to communicate this change in the illustrations. Showing how everyday stimuli turns into one’s enemy, making them unable to listen to music or go out in the sun. How even the noise of birds chirping outside can turn into nails on a chalkboard. Having a sudden change in how your brain works also places you outside yourself, questioning what’s happening to you. I decided to blend this concept with the actual impact on the brain, showing a shockwave pushing her conscious aside. – Alex Castro


    October

    Meet nocebo, placebo’s ‘evil twin’
    Illustration by Alex Castro


    Ghost in the cell
    Illustrations by Cam Floyd


    Why’d You Push That Button?
    Illustrations by Garret Beard & William Joel


    Guiding Light
    Illustration by William Joel


    fire stock illustrations

    Extreme weather has already cost the US $350 billion — and climate change is going to add to the bill
    Illustrations by Alex Castro


    November

    Pro-science group sets up new ways for government scientists to blow the whistle
    Illustration by Alex Castro


    Drug Hunters
    Illustrations by Alex Castro


    December

    Smoke Screen
    Illustrations by Alex Castro


    Net Neutrality is Dead
    Illustration by Alex Castro

    Coming in right at the buzzer for the year in review, this illustration has to be one of my favorite of 2017. Building off the foundation of a previous net neutrality illustration, this piece was able to push to a larger scale of world building. Being a massive fan of Star Wars and newer fan of Blade Runner, I’ve always wanted to create my own universe. Illustrating a dystopian future post-net neutrality was the perfect opportunity. This piece isn’t exactly my prediction of our future but the interpretation of the emotions of the public as a result of the FCC’s decision. This world is a look into the internet's worst nightmare. It might not make sense, but it still terrifies nonetheless. 

    Special thanks to James Bareham for taking the photos of circuit boards that make up the city’s foundation, and to William Joel for teaching me how to use Cinema 4D to create the buildings. – Alex Castro


    The internet we left behind
    Illustration by William Joel


    In 2017, key Facebook builders disowned their creation
    Illustration by William Joel


    Vulnerabilities and Exploits
    Illustration by William Joel


    2017 was YouTube’s best year ever. It was also its worst.
    Illustration by Garret Beard


    How recreational marijuana in California left chemists in the dark
    Illustrations by Alex Castro