Lifting A Dreamer (aka. Twitter Fail Whale)
Lifting A Dreamer (the Twitter Fail Whale) and Beyond
Below is a video of my talk on my creative process:
The Twitter Whale is an illustration of a white beluga whale held up by a flock of birds, originally named “Lifting a Dreamer”. I created the original artwork. It was used during periods of downtime by the social networking service Twitter. When Twitter gets overloaded, users see the above error message.
The internet has reached a decision to name it “Fail Whale”, which was suggested both by Jen Simmons from Brooklyn, New York and Nick Quaranto from Buffalo, New York: 
The fan base creative expression of the “Lifting a Dreamer” (“Fail Whale”) has grown tremendously over the past 10 years, from tattoo to 3D sculptures, Lego to beer labels, cakes to street art…the “Fail Whale” gradually became a cultural icon. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of funny ‘modified’ Lifting a Dreamer on the internet.
This page serves as an ongoing online gallery of interesting highlights of these creative expressions, which comes from people globally on the internet, to inspire more people around the world in real-life…
Enjoy!
3D knetic Sulpture by Australian Artist Hilary Talbot (@Hil121) from Canberra, Australia
Tattoo by @critter from Florida, United State
Lego Whale by Bjarne Tveskovby @tveskov, an Ex-pro LEGO Space designer from Copenhagen, Denmark
Paper quill art by Ann Martin (All Things Paper) a paper quilling artist Delaware, United States
Street Art by @smartcrew in the New York City, NY, United States
Large Hand Crafted 3D Lifting a Dreamer Balloon at the Asagaya Tanabata festival in Tokyo, Japan
Fail Whale Pale Ale Beer Label Contest held by @TweetHunt_org:
Fail Whale Pale Ale Label by Brian Cook from Manchester, Connecticut, United States:
Fail Whale Pale Ale Label by @dirtdirt from Austin, Texas, United States:
Fail Whale Pale Ale Glass Pint by Ian Leino, from Asheville, North Carolina, United States:
FAILparty Fail Whale Pale Ale Tap Handle by @seanosteen:
Fashion Highlights Around the World:
Hat by Hine Mizushima from Vancouver, Canada
Social Media Sneakers prototype by Lumen Bigott, from San Juan de los Morros, Venezuela
Nail by Melissa Osburn from Las Vegas, United States
Lifting a Dreamer inspired Makeup Tutorial by Queen Of Blending from Los Angles, United States
Painting by artist Kuni (aka “ka-92“) from Tokyo, Japan
Painting by David Pache from Lausanne, Switzerland
Painting by Cédric Rolando from Paris, France
Twitter Propaganda Poster by Aaron Wood from Quincy, Massachusetts, United States
Homer Simpsons Whale by Ed Wheeler from Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia
Michael Jackson Whale by Raul Orozco from Medellín, Colombia
Conan O’Brien Pale Whale for the debut of the Conan Show on TBS, by Yiying Lu from Sydney, Australia
Flying Vitaly Friedman, the editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, an online magazine for professional Web designers and developers, Freiburg, Germany
Guy Kawasaki Enchantment Butterfly, by Yiying Lu from Sydney, Australia
Gavin Newsom Whale by Audrey Fukuman on SF Weekly, San Francisco, United States
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) public transit posters in Singapore
The Muni N Judah Whale on the N Judah Chronicles, San Francisco, United States
Cake by Confeiteira Paula Simões from São Paulo, Brazil
Cake by Chris Darbro from Los Angeles, California, United States
Cupcakes by Leticia Sapienza from Melbourne, Australia
Cake by Anna Rascouët-Paz from Brooklyn, New York, United States
Cake by Mariana Pugliese from Buenos Aires, Argentina
British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap tweets her Whale T-shirt, from London, United Kingdom
The Fail Whale Redbull Flugtag competition entry by Soap Creative, from Sydney Australia
Lifting a Dreamer (Twitter Fail Whale) appearance in Episode 20 of Japanese Toradora Anime, from Japan
ASCII Art by Iain Wallace, from Warwickshire, United Kingdom
ASCII Quiz from Automattic, San Francisco, California, United States
Sand Lifting a Dreamer, by Justine Ezarik (@ijustine) from Los Angeles, California, United States
Jack-o-Lantern for CTFO Great Pumpkin ASK (Artists Supporting Kids) by Ean MacNamara from Portland, Oregon, United States
Pumpkin Carving by Scott Brewster from Brooklyn, New York, United States
Pumpkin Carving by IT World writers James Speedy & Harmeet Singh from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Pumpkin Carving by Heather Hefner from Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
3D Model Art Work by Glen Southern from Dublin, Ireland
Illustration by Mykl Roventine from West Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Illustration on Laugh-Out-Loud Cats by Adam Koford from Farmington, Utah, United States
Pencil sketch by Dave Mottram from Stow, Ohio, United States
Illustration by @aksrnk from Kansai, Japan
Illustration by Matt Kaufenberg from Alexandria, Minnesota, United States
Illustration by Martin Gee from San Jose, California, United States
Illustration by Geoffrey Dorne, from Paris, France
Shorty Awards, Honoring the Best in Social Media in New York City.
Logo design by Aaron Taylor-Waldman from Thetford Center, Vermont, United States
At the 5th Anniversary of Shorty Awards, I made a new whale mascot – as the cousin of Lifting a Dreamer in NYC
Fail Whale Martini at Shorty Awards:
“Lifting a Dreamer” (Fail Whale) Drink Recipe via BlackTwitterati:
The Fail Whale Martini
– 1 part Absolute
– 1 part Cointreau
– 1 part Blue Curacao
– Lime Slice
Pour over ice and mix in a shaker. Serve in martini glasses.
The Fail Whale Martini II (a variation on the Blue Whale)
– 1 part Vodka or Gin (depending on who you ask)
Add Media– 1 part Blue Curacao
– 1 part Orange Juice
– 1 part Pineapple Juice
– 1 part Sweet and Sour Mix
Pour ingredients over ice and mix in a shaker. Strain into tall glasses.
Garnish with a plastic blue whale and a cherry.
Serve.
The Fail Whale Drink
– 1 Glass of Heineken
– 0.5 shot of Blue Curacao
– 0.5 shoto of Vodka
– 1 Sardine (if available)
Drop the shot of Vodka and Blue Curacao into the pint glass heineken, garnish with a Sardine.
Fail Whale Iced Tea:
– 0.5 oz Blue Curacao
– 0.5 oz Gin
– 0.5 oz Rum
– 0.5 oz Triple sec
– 0.5 oz OVAL Vodka
Directions: Pour all the ingredients over ice. Shake and garnish with a lemon squeeze.
Animated 8 bit “Lifting a dreamer” GIF (Music version here)
by the creator of the Nyan Cat (Originally named: Pop Tart Cat), Christopher Torres from Dallas, Texas, United States
And Finally on the 6 anniversary – that is 6 years after the very date it was being called the “Fail Whale” from the internet .
And since now it is now retired from Twitter, yet the spirit of the “Lifting a Dreamer” remains.
I present you all:
See also
The Success Loch Ness
The IPO Hippo
Shorty Awards Top Hat Whale
The above artworks are individually credited to its author(s) and source(s).
If you'd like to reblog / write about them please credit accordingly.
The original Illustration “Lifting a dreamer” is a copyrighted image and owned by Yiying Lu.
If you'd like to reblog or use the illustration for educational or non-commercial usage,
or If you'd like to contribute to this gallery, please contact Yiying. © Copyright 2002 - 2014 Yiying Lu.
