Monday, March 23, 2009

YiYing Lu's 'Fail Whale'

Illustration by YiYing Lu

Did you read the article about YiYing Lu's 'Fail Whale' illustration in the Sunday Life magazine this weekend?

I am surprisingly unsavvy when it comes to technological social networking, and am still as yet uninitiated in the ways of Facebook or Twitter. Mainly because I am so boring and so busy all the time that my 'status'(?) would almost certainly permanently read 'tired', 'exhausted', 'working' or 'blogging'. Boring!

Anyway, I was really interested to read about Sydney-based illustrator YiYing Lu's whale illustration, which apparently was purchased from iStock by Twitter last year, and used as some kind of screensaver during regular service outages on the Twitter network. The gorgeous feel-good image of a whale being carried by a flock of chirpy little red birds instantly struck a chord with Twitter users worldwide, propelling YiYing Lu into the spotlight. Fail Whale now has it's own fansite.

Ah, the power of the intenet! It's an amazing thing.

ps) YiYing's website and Flickr are worth a browse for a peek of her work beyond the whale....


3 comments:

  1. What a cute tale (pardon accidental pun). Her work reminds me of a little of We Buy Your Kids - I think they have a cat in a balloon on one of their posters. Animals aloft, what's there not to like?

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  2. Ohh I have a student in one of my year 12 classes who would love these designs! I must show her....

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  3. Thanks so much for your comments! :

    Inside Out - I'm not sure who it is... Vanessa perhaps? Anyway... you know I am the biggest Inside Out fan so thanks for the comments! :) I LOVE we buy your kids also! I must interview them one of these days!

    Adelle - thanks so much for your comment and for sharing this with you students! :) Greatly appreciated!

    Thanks! x

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