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Yiying Lu is an artist most known for creating the 2008 Twitter Fail Whale, co-creating the dumpling emoji, and co-founding Emojination. She was born in Shanghai, China and earned her Bachelor of Design from University of Technology Sydney. She is based in San Francisco, California, US.
Yiying Lu | |
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| Born | Shanghai, China |
| Education | Bachelor of Design from University of Technology Sydney |
| Occupation(s) | Artist, designer |
| Known for | Creating Twitter Fail Whale, co-creating the Dumpling emoji, and co-founding Emojination |
| Awards |
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| Website | www |
Yiying Lu has been using art, design, and technology to unite people across language and cultural barriers.[1] After earning her bachelor’s degree from University of Technology Sydney in 2008, Lu founded the Yiying Lu Studio.[2]
While earning her degree, Lu created a digital artwork titled "Lifting a Dreamer" to send birthday wishes to a friend living far away.[3][4] Lu then posted the image, featuring a serene whale being lifted out of the water by eight orange birds, to a istockphoto.com, where Twitter co-founder Biz Stone discovered the image and thought it would make a good icon.[4] In May of 2008 the image of a serene whale being lifted out of the water became the Twitter Fail Whale.[4]
Due to the popularity of the fail whale, Conan O’Brien commissioned Conan O’Brien Pale Whale for Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco website and Twitter page.[5] The image became popular on the internet, including a profile page and fan club for the fail whale.[6] In July of 2008, Mashable held a competition for users to create an icon for Facebook based on the Fail Whale.[6] Lu also created the Shorty Whale for the social media Shorty Awards, another outgrowth of the fail whale.[7]
Her work bridging design and technology continued when in 2011 she created a set of illustrations of famous faces in fashion featuring QR codes.[8]
In 2015 Lu co-founded the Dumpling Project and Emojination with Jennifer 8. Lee.[9] Between 2015 and 2020, Lu created six Unicode emojis now used by billions of people. These are the dumpling (🥟), boba tea (🧋), fortune cookie (🥠), chopsticks (🥢), takeout box (🥡), and peacock (🦚), representing sights, foods, beverages, images, and animals common in Asia and Asian American communities.[10][11]
In 2016 she designed a version of Mickey Mouse for the inaugural recruitment campaign for Disney Shanghai Resort.[2]
In 2024, Lu, Steve Sue, and Ryan Ozawa, submitted the shaka emoji (🤙) to the unicode Consortium to bolster the reach of the famous gesture from Hawaiian culture.[12][13]
Lu's Disco Winter Wonder Land & Sea, featured at the 2024 San Francisco “Let’s Glow SF” public art exhibit featured was,"a playful and whimsical celebration of the winter holiday season and animal inhabitants from different continents."[14] The piece included north pole animals such as the polar bear, red panda, koala, and whale shark to promote biological diversity and ocean conservation.[15]
In 2024 Lu won the Pantone Spotlight Artist award and she said, "Color is my language, weaving bridges between hearts and minds, connecting individuals through shared emotions, and orchestrating a symphony of unity and understanding."[16]
Yiying Lu is a San Francisco Arts Commissioner for visual arts.[17] She is a frequent guest speaker and visiting lecturer.[3] She has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, NBC News, TIME, Wired Magazine, The Verge, CNN, and the BBC.[17]
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