Photo by StarryImage

LTL PRINTS has launched an exclusive collection of Yiying Lu premium wall graphics, featuring artwork and giant character cut-outs from the acclaimed Australian artist + designer.

http://www.LTLprints.com/Yiying

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YIYING premium wall graphics from LTL PRINTS are available in a range of customer-selected sizes (from laptop-size up to seven feet tall), are self-adhesive and will stick to almost any surface (walls, windows, even ceilings!), and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without leaving a mark or damaging your walls.

Prices start at $14.95 for laptop-sized graphics (NEW!), to LTL PRINTS’ signature 7 foot tall ‘larger-than-lifesize’ wall graphics, for $149.95.

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YIYING LU

“Yiying” is 2 characters in Chinese. “Yi” means Happy; “Ying” means Creative.

Yiying is an idea girl, a global soul, and multifaceted visual communicator with a unique blend of art & technology.

Born in Shanghai, Yiying moved to Sydney when she was a teen. Yiying has been educated in UK and Australia. She has studied at Central St Martins College of Art & Design in London and University of New South Wales in Sydney. She graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with 1st-Class honors in Bachelor of Design Visual Communication 2007.

Yiying is the illustrator of the social networking site Twitter.com’s Fail Whale icon, which has been featured in CNN, New York Times Magazine, BBC, NPR & Wired Magazine.

Yiying has also done design and creative work for Anna Sui New York, Maybelline, GettyImages, Glam Media, JWT, the Surfrider Foundation, the University of Technology Sydney, McCann World Group, and LTL PRINTS.

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LARGER THAN LIFE INTERVIEW:

YIYING LU

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The Story of ‘Lifting a Dreamer’:

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. In 2002, I had moved to Australia for my foundation year of study in International Design and Media at the University of New South Wales, and I kept in touch with a lot of friends that I grew up with in Shanghai – mostly over mail and MSN.

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‘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! I also included this image on my website’s homepage, and I would use MSN to send it to friends and family when I could not attend their birthdays and graduations and parties. Basically, I had this giant wish that is so heavy (the elephant), and the birds represented my free spirit and good wishes. My favorite artists at the time were Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, along with Japanese and Chinese comics, and this was how I pictured delivering my good wishes to the people that I loved who were far away.

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I created different animal images across different mediums for many years – literally thousands of them. 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.

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A few different versions of Lifting a Dreamer are included below.

Yiying suggested link:

Elephant – Symbol of the Highest True Self

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Yiying Lu Wall Graphics on Makers Market:

Next week, I am also launching a collection of premium wall graphics on Makers Market, the curated online gallery from MAKE magazine and BOING BOING…

Inspiration:

I am inspired by everyday life and people. Inspiration for me is everywhere. Coco Chanel observed that ‘Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes; fashion is in the air, born upon the wind; one intuits it. It is in the sky and on the road’, and I think her vision applies not only to fashion, but also to design and visual communication. I have a lot of different influences from diverse areas and cultures. Art, Music and Fashion are major sources of inspiration for me.

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But so is the news. Children’s books. Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros? Peter Newell’s Topsys & Turvys! Paul Rand’s “Eye, Bee, Em” and Alan Fletcher’s “Art of Looking Side Ways”. Comic books and cartoons and anime and manga. Vintage Japanese and Chinese pornography. TAZO’s. Hayao Miyazaki.  Robot Chicken.  Kseniya Simonova. Osvaldo Cavandoli. From Bruno Munari and Saul Steinberg to Edward De Bono. Memphis and Bauhaus. Georgia O’Keefe. Primary colors. Shapes and textures and objects. Tourmaline and Gelato. Wasabi Peas and Koala Biscuits. An unexpected image on a 404 page that makes you smile. Andre the Giant stickers and wheatpastes by Shepard Fairey on random walls in Shanghai and Sydney and London. A bowl of Korean spicy noodle soup. YouTube clips of TED talks. A friend’s call over skype. An Audible Book from Elizabeth Gilbert.

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Inspiration is everywhere…

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Favorite TED TALKS:

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What is on your iPod?

I have a 60 gb iPod and it is totally full. I listen to all sorts of music, from The Beatles to The Beach Boys to Beethoven. I love Claude Debussy. I grew up listening to dozens and dozens of classical music CDs that my father would bring back from Japan, along with a really wide and diverse mix of great music – from Camille Saint Saen and Antonin Dvorak, to The Bee Gees and The Pet Shop Boys! I remember dancing and singing along with The Carpenters when I was 6 or 7 – my mother’s sister was an actress and singer and she would bring me American records, and listening to this now reminds me of home, and takes me back. Sometimes when I am feeling homesick for Shanghai, I am listening to Kenny G and Richard Clayderman from the 80s in Sydney – don’t tell anyone!

What is on my iPod today? All sorts! I am listening to Daft Punk, Café del Mar, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Fujiya & Miyagi, Röyksopp, Air, Massive Attack, Stephane Grappelli, Future Bible Heroes, The Doors, ABBA, Pink Floyd, Johann Sebastian Bach, The London Suede, Bob Marley – along with some old school Chinese and Japanese animation theme songs!

And I love The Buggles! Video Killed the Radio Star! Adventures In Modern Recording!c

On Great Design:

Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister has a tick list of “Things to do before I die”, and the last one is: Touch Somebody’s Heart with Graphic Design. This really inspired me.

My own vision of Great Design is pretty simple:

Great design delivers a smile to the mind.

And here is my 4F theory:

Form Follows Functionality + Fun.

I believe that Great Design should serve a purpose, yet the expression should be organic and intuitive.

Simply: I want to reach people intellectually AND make them smile.

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Yiying at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art:

I previewed my new wall art collections at the 2010 Creative Sydney opening at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art – and revealed some of the new friends of Fail Whale in my Sticker Photo Booth Project with photographer Prue Lewington.

These animals and speech bubbles have been printed as premium repositionable self-adhesive wall graphics from LTL PRINTS. People who came to the opening could choose their favorite character(s) by sticking the chosen ones onto themselves or the white walls in the photobooth. And people really had fun!

Some photos from the opening night below.

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Guests at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art were also invited to use the speech bubble sticker (which is also the shape of the Tweety Bird) to write down their own feelings about the night / or tweets they want to send on twitter. The photographer then photographed them individually / or they could photograph themselves using iPhone or camera and post onto social media sites such as twitter, facebook, twipic or flickr.

Below are some additional photos from the event (Photos by Prue Lewington).

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The Daily Telegraph: Creative Sydney @ Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art

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What do you think about mash-ups of your designs?

I love it when I see that my artwork has inspired someone else to CREATE something new!

Creation triggers more creation, and I am very happy to play a small part in this process.

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Which Edward De Bono Thinking Hat(s) are you?

I think I’m like a traffic light! (laughter)

Mostly Green (Creativity) and Red (Emotion), and whenever it gets busier I’m try to put on the Yellow hat (optimistic).

But it’s also good for me to put on a Black (Logic) Hat sometimes…

Because then there will be a rabbit climbing out of that!

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The NEW YORK TIMES on Yiying Lu:

Yiying Lu, an artist and a designer in Sydney, Australia, has made a number of appealing illustrations, many featuring animals. But one image in her portfolio is far more likely to be familiar to at least some of you than any of the others: the one depicting a peaceful whale held aloft by a small flock of birds. To certain particularly dedicated users of the online social-networking service Twitter, the “Fail Whale” is as iconic as any corporate logo, and far more beloved. Some have bought the T-shirt, and some have joined the fan club…

The New York Times: A Successful Failure

The SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on Yiying Lu:

Art and technology can be strange bedfellows but when Fail Whale designer Yiying Lu is involved, you can always count on the results being interesting. The Shanghai-born artist, now based in Sydney, is most famous for her illustration of a white whale being lifted out of the water by a small flock of birds that appears when popular microblogging site Twitter crashes.

Since Lu is no stranger to the tie-in between art and technology, it’s appropriate she is headlining Australia’s first Web Week, which begins in Sydney on Friday. The free exhibition (her first solo) brings the world of cutting-edge web technology, social media and artistic creativity together…

The Sydney Morning Herald: Modern Art, But Not as You Know It

SCROLL MAGAZINE on Yiying Lu:

If ever there was a case to be made for nominative determinism Yiying Lu must be it. In Shanghainese, (Yiying was born and brought up in Shanghai) Yiying means ‘happy and creative’. To meet this hyperkinetic woman in her early 20s — an honours graduate of the University of Technology’s Design program in 2007, who’s already been named in The Australian newspaper as one of the 100 emerging innovation leaders — is to be instantly affirmed of her happiness. And a brief look at her portfolio is to be assured that she is also most definitely creative, as anyone familiar with her most famous creation will attest…

…Such a fixation with cuddly animals would seem a contradiction for the graduate of a prestigious, selective mathematics and sciences focused school, where design and art simply weren’t on the agenda. But apparent contradictions are central to Yiying’s approach to the world. A ‘left brain’ child by her own admission, the drawers under her bed literally bursting with Japanese and Chinese manga comic books, Yiying chose to pursue a technical education, recognizing the ‘right brain’ shortcomings in her youthful outlook. She says now of that education, which was something she had to work hard to keep up with, that the ability to think mathematically helps her with the more technical aspects of design — from using sophisticated software, to determining the complex folds for her recent ‘Aussiegami’ project — a dozen origami pieces depicting those furry (and some not so furry) Australian animals that you can fold yourself…

Scroll Magazine: John Allsopp finds out what makes the creator of Twitter’s iconic Fail Whale tick.

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SYDNEY CENTRAL MAGAZINE on Yiying Lu

Artist Yiying Lu has become the poster child for the online art community after her now famous Fail Whale was picked up by Twitter as it’s downtime logo.

At an exhibition on this week, Lu will be displaying a collection of artworks that make up part of a new breed of hybrid cross communication art that walks between digital, physical and commercial realities.

“It’s about expanding the understanding of art, so it’s not necessarily the normal or traditional understanding of what art is,” Lu said. “Art can be anything, art can be anywhere and there are no boundaries.”

For Lu, art is primarily about a person’s response to a stimulus. “You can see a piece of visual communication, even the composition down the street and it can be art,” she said.

It’s almost as though the response, rather than the object which triggers it, is more important in defining what constitutes art for Lu…

Sydney Central Magazine: Young Artists All a Twitter

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The Aussiegami Project

This is a project that I have been working on for several years. It will launch in 2011.

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Recent Projects:

I have been very busy lately!  From creative design and art direction for LTL PRINTS, to branding and packaging design for a new line of pet shampoo with nootie, to creating logos / branding / identities / designs for large & small clients globally.  Plus expanding my collection of Tweety’s Friends illustrations.  I am also working on some fashion illustrations, and I have been teaching design at the University of Technology Sydney.

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Tangrams?

I love tangrams.

Next month, I am launching my first collections of YIYING WALL TANGRAMS with LTL PRINTS.

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On Meeting The Prime Minister:

The Australian recently named me one of 100 Emerging Leaders in Innovation, and I met Australian Prime Minster Kevin Rudd at the awards ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra. It was a great honor to be part of this event, and I was inspired by his speech on leadership for the future. It was a wonderful experience to speak with the Prime Minister in both English & Chinese Mandarin!c

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WHAT’S NEXT?

I am a big fan of TED, and I think that Richard St. John’s outlook perfectly captures What’s Next for me.

“I’m not a WorkaHolic, I’m just a WorkaFrolic!”

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Wall Graphics?

I am really excited about the new Yiying wall graphics.  They will stick to almost any surface and can be moved and re-hung 100 times. With NO damage to your walls. Just Peel & Stick. Re-move & Re-use.

Customers can even pick their own custom sizes – from laptop size up to seven feet tall. They will stick to walls, windows – even ceilings. And they look amazing on windows – the unique ‘premium self adhesive fabric paper’ is slightly opaque, and actually illuminates when back-lit! I am still trying to figure out the full potential of this new medium…

And most importantly, they are interactive! All of my wall graphics are printed on-demand, and people can decide HOW and WHERE to display them on their walls. They can change them. Wrap them around corners. Stick them to the ceiling or a door or a window. Move them about. This INTERACTIVE component to me is very exciting, and I am really looking forward to exploring the potential of this new wall graphics medium…

http://www.LTLprints.com/Yiying

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Photo by StarryImage

LINKS:

http://www.yiyinglu.com

http://www.LTLprints.com/Yiying

Follow Yiying on Twitter @YiyingLu

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Photos by StarryImage

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Retweet & Follow @BigWallGraphics by July 17th at Midnight:

One winner will be selected at random, and they will receive ANY Yiying wall graphic from the LTL PRINTS catalog (up to SEVEN FEET TALL!) for THEIR empty walls – at absolutely no charge + free shipping anywhere in the world…

https://twitter.com/BigWallGraphics/status/18523247699

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