The whale tail pattern gives homage to the Twitter Fail Whale, the original symbol of Twitter site outages in 2008-2013. @YiyingLu, one of the first Shorty Awards winners for her design of the Twitter Fail Whale, flew halfway across the world to New York to present her work at the first Shorty Awards ceremony. Who knew that her work would inspire so many great years of social media excellence?
“Shorty” stands for short-form content. When social media became a worldwide phenomenon, especially on Twitter, most social media users were limited to 140 characters or less. They had to create engaging, inspiring content that would gain a following, all in just a few words. The phrase “short-form content” became synonymous with social media content, and as the awards show for social was born, the name “Shorty” was a perfect fit.
