Bill Venables, member of the R Foundation, co-author of the Introduction to R manual, R package developer, and one of the smartest and nicest (a rare combo!) people you will ever meet, received some gifts from the user!2018 conference committee in recognition of his longtime service to the R community. He received a book of reminiscences from those whose lives he has touched, and this blanket:
This morning we took care of some unfinished #user2018 business. 😊 @visnut @tslumley @_jessie_roberts pic.twitter.com/gW0wX2PLF2
— Miles McBain (@MilesMcBain) July 19, 2018
The design on the blanket is the "Hex Sticker Wall" that was on design during the conference, created by Mitchell O'Hara-Wild:
The #useR2018 #hexwall has been revealed! Read about how it was created in #rstats on this blog post: https://t.co/krYYOQ3N84
— Mitchell O'Hara-Wild (@mitchoharawild) July 11, 2018
A huge thanks to everyone who has submitted stickers and provided feedback. I hope you enjoy the end result as much as I have had creating it! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/GnG9m2cZme
The design for the wall was created — naturally — using R. Mitchell created an R script that will arrange a folder of hexagon images according to a specified layout. He then used a map of Australia to lay out the hex sticker coordinates within the map boundaries and plotted that to create the Hexwall. If you have a similar collection of hex images you could use the same technique to arrange them into any shape you like. The details are provided in the blog post linked below.
Mitchell O'Hara-Wild: UseR! 2018 Feature Wall