0 Today I Learned...the Origin of the Twitter Fail Whale
July 14, 2010
 |
| Current version of the Twitter Fail Whale designed by YiYing Lu. Image credit: Twitter |
LTL Prints has published an interesting interview with the designer of the Twitter Fail Whale, YiYing Lu, whose name coincidentally translates to Happy ("Yi") and Creative ("Ying"), in Chinese. Here's a little background on the origin of the famous Twitter image, told in YiYing's own words:
"This piece that would eventually become the Twitter ‘Fail Whale’ was originally called ‘Lifting a Dreamer’, and was a personal work – a visual greeting to my friends overseas. [...] ‘Lifting a Dreamer’ originally featured an Elephant, drawn with pencil! I wanted to create a visual greeting – a visual ‘comfort’ for my friends back home for all the events that I was missing! Basically, I had this giant wish that is so heavy (the elephant), and the birds represented my free spirit and good wishes.
 |
| The original version of the Twitter Fail "Whale" circa 2002. Photo credit: LTL Prints |
"After returning to Australia from my exchange study in Central St. Martins London, around early 2007, I created an updated version of my ‘birds lifting an elephant’ image. I created a vector graphic with color and smaller size to send via email. And this time, instead of an elephant, it featured a whale – since I was living in New South *Whales*. I first used it as an eCard for a friend whose party in London I couldn’t attend. Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, found it online and used it on the page that displays when Twitter was overloaded."
Read the full interview here
 |
| YiYing wall graphics now available for purchase at LTL Prints. Photo credit: LTL Prints |
[via Holy Kaw]
|
|
 ShareThis
| Posted
July 14, 2010
at
11:01 PM
|
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
0 Response to "Today I Learned...the Origin of the Twitter Fail Whale"
Post a Comment