CATEGORY:

Our review of the year presents the 30 most popular PHOTOGRAPHY MATT CRUMP
ANA CUBA
DESIGN GIANLUCA GIMINI
SERPENTINE PAVILION

wallpapers which ran on WeTransfer this year.

DAN BURN-FORTI LVARO PEALTA
SOPHIE EBRARD MOVIMENTO 90
JUNO CALYPSO UNIT EDITIONS
They are split up into six categories photography,
animation, illustration, design, music and art.

For music, popularity is based on the number of down- ANIMATION JONATHAN MONAGHAN
MUSIC OASIS

loads that wallpaper led to. For the rest, they are ranked on
VIC MENSA
SHAI LANGEN
GEMINI
THOKA MAER
FORM ARCOSANTI
clickthrough rate the amount of people who clicked on a
ALAN WARBURTON
MODERAT
UGO GATTONI

wallpaper as a ratio of the number of people who saw it.

There are 12 different countries represented in the follow- ILLUSTRATION WHOOLI CHEN ART NEAL PETERSON
ing pages the US, Spain, the UK, Netherlands, Japan, Ger- TOMOYUKI TANAKA
OLGA MOLINA
CINTA VIDAL
ELISE

many, France, Italy, Brazil, Taiwan, Sweden and Ireland. LEONIE BOS
LAURA CALLAGHAN
SECOND LIFE TOYS
ALICE TYE
Heres to another year of connecting creatives
around the world! In 2016
285 MLN
WETRANSFER WELCOMED
195
MORE THAN 285 MILLION
UNIQUE USERS, FROM 195
COUNTRIES. THESE USERS SENT
1 BLN
1 BILLION FILES EVERY MONTH.
400
WE SHOWCASED THE WORK OF
MORE THAN 400 INDIVIDUALS
AND ORGANISATIONS.
3,2 MLN
WE LAUNCHED OUR 3 BLN
WE GAVE AWAY 3 BILLION
NEW BLOG THIS WORKS, TO PAGE IMPRESSIONS TO
TELL THE STORIES OF THE PROMOTE CREATIVE PROJECTS
CREATIVES FEATURED ON OUR OF EVERY STRIPE FROM
WALLPAPERS. SO FAR, THIS
WORKS HAS HAD 3.2 MILLION
UNIQUE USERS.
ILLUSTRATION TO ANIMATION,
MUSIC TO ARCHITECTURE.
4.8 MLN
OUR NEW PODCAST SERIES
WETALKMUSIC, FEATURING
THE LIKES OF ANDERSON .PAAK
AND BONOBO, CLOCKED UP
4.8 MILLION LISTENING
MINUTES.
When you take the time to look back on the last 12 months
as we are all beseeched to do at this time of year there
are certain moments that your mind conjures immediately.
We are lucky enough to have been
spoiled for choice in 2016. Its Gilles
Peterson DJ-ing at our packed-out
Cannes party as the sun went down
over the sea. Its Bilal and Miguel
Atwood-Fergusons 11-piece orchestra
bringing the audience to its feet with a
spine-tingling Prince cover at our How
We Do: LA event. Its clustering round
someones computer to see the first cut
of our FKA twigs documentary, or our
brand new WeTransfer website being
rolled out around the world.
These special memories stand out, but
they are jostled by the various small
day-to-day moments we get the email
from a young photographer suddenly
commissioned off the back of one of
our wallpapers, or the artist whose site
temporarily crashes due to the amount
of traffic we are sending their way.
Ever since 2009, WeTransfer has
supported the creative community in
which we are embedded. This means
and will continue to mean giving
away 30% of our entire global inventory
to showcase creative projects we love
by individuals and organisations we
admire.
In 2016, this meant nearly three billion
page impressions given over to the cre-
ative community. We supported more
than 450 different practitioners, rang-
ing from world-renowned art galleries
to fresh-out-of-art-school illustrators
(and that mix is important to us).
Our new blog This Works, launched
in April, welcomed more than three
million unique visitors this year. Our
WeTalkMusic podcast series clocked
up 4.8 million listening minutes across
its four episodes. We offered 14 dif-
ferent podcasts in our Podcast Pack,
which were downloaded 219,000 times.
This review is a distillation of the past
12 months on WeTransfer from an ed-
itorial perspective. It gives you a sense
of the most successful wallpapers we
ran across six categories music, art,
illustration, photography, design and
animation.
So thanks for taking the time to down-
load it we really hope you enjoy it.
And thanks also to all the amazing art-
ists, musicians, designers, illustrators,
photographers, dreamers and makers
who let us feature their work this year.
Our creative integrity is built on your
brilliance.
ROB ALDERSON
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
 CATEGORY: PHOTOGRAPHY

INTRO

Since the very start, photography has been one of the main
categories on our WeTransfer wallpapers, and photogra-
phers are among our most active users. This year we hired
our first dedicated Head of Photography Partnerships and
our top five threw up some really interesting insights.
INSIGHTS In this selection, blue stands out in Interestingly Juno Calypsos series
every photo. Interestingly, color trend Joyce was one of the most-com-
researchers have consistently found plained-about wallpapers this year,
that blues of various hues resonate with users questioning the way female
with all kinds of viewers. characters were displayed in the work-
place. But controversy also clearly led
All the photos have a clear sense of to clicks!
symmetry. They are composed in such
a way that theyre in proportion We could say that the most popular
making it uncomplicated for the view- photos have been about cultural dis-
er to follow the lines in the photos. connect. For example Dan Burn-Forti
explored the (to him) unfamiliar US,
Matt Crump rediscovered the aesthet-
THE MORE
REMOTE IT
ics of Disneyland and Sophie Ebrard
IS FROM ME, immersed herself in the slam-dunk
THE MORE
PLEASURE scene.
I TAKE
SOPHIE EBRARD
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 CATEGORY: ANIMATION

INTRO

In 2016 weve experimented more and more with the

use of moving imagery on our backgrounds, featuring
artists working in disciplines ranging from CGI animation
and GIFs to music video and film (and even a full-length
George Orwell-inspired ballet!)
INSIGHTS While we would have assumed that Another interesting observation was
the brighter the better when it comes the weirdness of this category three
to our wallpapers, its striking here (arguably four) of the five are at the
that the dominant colors are muted darkest and most surreal end of the
and grey. We didnt see this across our spectrum of work we showcase.
other categories, suggesting a particu-
larly fruitful link between this palette It appears that our users tend to click
and moving images. more on small subtle movements
rather than fast, flashy imagery each
video in this category (with the excep-
tion of Alan Warburtons work) fea-
YOU CAN USE tures just a tiny change in motion.
WORDS LIKE
PAIN AND FEAR,
BUT THERE IS
NO WAY OF
KNOWING WHAT
WE EXPERIENCE
ON A CORPOREAL
LEVEL IS MUTUAL
SHAI LANGEN
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 CATEGORY: ILLUSTRATION

INTRO

Illustration is one of the creative disciplines we have supported

from the beginning of WeTransfer, and once again in 2016 we
have showcased an eclectic range of visual styles.

INSIGHTS Four of the five top illustrators this Overall illustration has a slightly
year were women, well above the lower clickthrough rate than the
50/50 gender split for which we aim. other disciplines we feature on our
This is the highest of any category. background wallpapers. This may be
because in some regions, illustration
The illustration category also has the still has a reputation as a childish
most geographic scope, as the illustra- or naive artform.
tors who make up the five come from
Taiwan, Japan, Spain, the Netherlands
and the UK. Its interesting to see two
creatives from the Far East an un-
derrepresented region overall come
THESE PROFOUND
PHRASES, INTEND- in first and second here.
ED TO MOTIVATE
AND INSPIRE, ARE
REVEALED TO BE
MEANINGLESS
WHEN APPLIED TO
REAL LIFE
LAURA CALLAGHAN
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 CATEGORY: DESIGN

INTRO

Design is a bit of a catch-all name for the category which

encompasses a wide range of work featured on the
WeTransfer wallpapers over the past 12 months.

INSIGHTS By its nature, this is the most eclectic The Serpentine Pavilion work is one
category in this review. It features of only a handful of projects which
architecture alongside graphic, set, ran on the site linked to a very timely
environmental and industrial/concep- event or exhibition. It was featured
tual design. while the latest incarnation was up
and running in London this summer,
The runaway leader in this catego- although it was the image of Sou
ry was Gianluca Giminis Velocipedia Fujimotos 2013 pavilion that piqued
project. This saw the Italian creative the most interest.
challenge people to draw a bike from
memory; he then took those sketches
STAMPS ARE and rendered them as photorealistic
LIKE WINDOWS
INTO FOREIGN models. Interestingly it is not possi-
PLACES,
THESE LITTLE
ble to grasp the depth or the wit of
LETTERBOXES Gianlucas project from the visuals
INTO HOW
A CULTURE alone, and yet many users were
SEES ITSELF
UNIT EDITIONS
compelled to find out more.
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 CATEGORY: MUSIC
INTRO
Music is the creative discipline with which WeTransfer
is arguably most closely associated.
INSIGHTS From having Troy Carter on our board
to bringing in Gilles Peterson to work
across various projects, a lot of our
energy is spent working with the mu-
sic community. From the late, great
Prince to Moby, many artists have
released new music through our plat-
form. This section focuses on those
artists whose releases we have
collaborated on this year.
I NEVER
CLAIMED TO
BE A PERFECT
MAN BUT NAME
A GREAT MAN
WHO WAS
VIC MENSA
Well ahead of the chasing pack, the
Oasis demo Going Nowhere was the
most downloaded track we promoted
in 2016. Offered in September to pro-
mote the re-release of the bands third
album Be Here Now, it was excitedly
welcomed by Oasis fans and the
music press alike.
The Form Arcosanti download is the
only entry which is a compilation
rather than a release from a single
artist or band. Offered as part of our
sponsorship deal with the unique fes-
tival in the Arizona desert, it featured
the likes of Skrillex, Bonobo and
Hundred Waters.
 CATEGORY: MUSIC ARTIST: OASIS LISTEN

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I COULD DO WITH WANNA BE WILD COS

A MOTOR CAR MY LIFES SO TAME

TRACK: GOING NOWHERE COUNTRY: UK GENDER: - STYLE: ROCK BAND

ALBUM: BE HERE NOW REISSUE DELUXE
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01. DYNASTY 02. 16 SHOTS 03. DANGER 04. NEW BAE 05. LIQUOR LOCKER 06. SHADES OF 07. THERE'S A LOT
BLUES GOING ON

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ITS GETTING HARD TO TELL ALL THE TIME TO SHARE, IM JUST ONE STEP
THE MONTHS FROM WEEKS ALL THE TIME TO SHARE, AWAY FROM YOU
ALL THE TIME TO SHARE

TRACK: TIME TO SHARE COUNTRY: SWEDEN GENDER: - STYLE: POP

ALBUM: WANDERLUST
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SKRILLEX BONOBO HUNDRED WATERS MOSES SUMNEY TORTOISE DAN DEACON

FORM ARCOSANTI COMPILATION COUNTRY: USA GENDER: - STYLE: MIXED

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121.97 BPM 89.45 BPM 123.74 BPM

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 CATEGORY: ART

INTRO

At first glance, it can be a challenge to find coherence

in the wonderfully diverse and multidisciplinary entries
in our art category. But art is by its very definition thrill-
ingly varied and the work here is a reflective cross-section
of what we have featured.
INSIGHTS Having said that, it is striking that
three of the five cover similar themes
Neal Peterson, Cinta Vidal and Alice
Tye touch on travel and journeys, on
the allure of exploration and the open
road.
Compositionally, many of the imag-
es feature blank or one-color back-
grounds with a single central focal
point.
Neal Petersons Urban Mandalas not
only topped the art category, it was the
most popular set of wallpapers we ran
on the site all year with a clickthrough
rate twice as high as our average.
Overall we aim for a 50/50 gender
split in the artists we feature. Art is
one of three categories where women
dominate, with three of the top five
artists.

THE IDEA OF BE-

ING PHYSICALLY
CLOSE BUT
MENTALLY FAR
HAS ALWAYS
INTERESTED ME
CINTA VIDAL
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READ MORE SUBMIT COLOPHON

Over on our This Works blog, youll If you would love to see your work on EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ROB ALDERSON
DEPUTY EDITOR SUZANNE TROMP
find more in-depth pieces looking the WeTransfer wallpapers (and may- CREATIVE PRODUCER IRENE ACHTERBERGH
HEAD OF PHOTOGRAPHY PARTNERSHIPS LUCY PIKE
back on the creative world in 2016. be even in this review next year) then HEAD OF MUSIC PARTNERSHIPS LUKAS NIEUWENHUIJSEN
These include: you can send projects to our curation
CREATIVE DIRECTOR LASZLITO KOVACS
team editorial@wetransfer.com. DESIGNER WERONIKA SIWIEC
PROJECT MANAGER JENNE MEERMAN
Our design teams selection of the WALLPAPER DESIGNS MATHIEU KOK, TIM VAN OMMEREN,
STEVIE ONEILL
best album artwork of 2016 We guarantee that everything we re-
ceive is looked at and considered for
Why its been a great year for the site.
independent magazines

How photographers are finding

different ways to tell one of the most
difficult stories of our time

The rise, fall and redemption

of Microsoft Paint