THAT TIME MY ILLUSTRATIONS BROKE THE INTERNET...TWICE
It’s not every day my artwork ends up plastered on the newsfeeds of hundreds of thousands of Australians, but when it does, the entire product line sells out! This was one of the most exciting and monumental experiences in my career so far.
“But how did it happen?” I hear you ask.
Well, as with every great idea, it all started as a bit of fun; a brainstorming project between La La Land Founder and Creative Director, Elie Azzi, and I. What started as a concept of two rabbits humping for a Valentine’s Day card, soon evolved into the a idea of illustrating a variety of colourful animals with tropical, jungle-style leaves to accompany the romantic greeting, ‘I’m Wild Fur You’.
Deciding to carry the design across not only a card collection, but our tea towels and market bags as a playful gift for those Valentine's Day customers with a little quirk, the ‘Wild Fur You’ collection was quickly put to production and brought to life.
Premiered to our wholesaler buyers, Australian department store, Myer, was amongst the first to pick up the collection. The brand has been slowly growing our range throughout each season, and it is always exciting to know my work will be displayed to so many Myer customers. We also loved that the brand was onboard to stock such a tongue-in-cheek design!
Fast-forward a few months, and the collection finally hit shelves across distributors, nationally. One perplexed Mum snapped a photo of our ‘Wild Fur You’ bags in Myer whilst out shopping, sharing it on a Facebook mother’s group. The post received an avalanche of feedback and reactions which were, for the most, positive and receptive to our classic Aussie humour.
Before we knew it, the ‘Wild Fur You’ collection was fast-circulating social media channels, with stories published across online news platforms, including Daily Mail, WSFM and POP Sugar. Unbeknown to us at the time. Myer had not only raised eyebrows as a result of its decision to stock such a risqué product, but had positioned it for sale in-store RIGHT next to the kids department (haha).
The poor buyer from Myer, apparently, received an alarming phone call in the middle of the night from one of the store’s board members, questioning why the hell they were selling a bag with animals fornicating on it?!! I mean, I guess with zero explanation it does sound pretty wild…
But, before they could take action and remove the products from the brands shelves, something amazing happened! The retail shoppers of Myer, literally, did the work for them. Almost over night, following the publication of the online news stories, our ‘Wild Fur You’ collection sold out across Myer, nationally, and from La La Land’s online store in its entirety, too.
This lead to Myer requesting additional products be added to the ‘Wild Fur You’ collection (a swift 360 from the move to get the panic to remove the range from shelves)! SO, Elie and I put our heads together and thought, what’s better than animals having sex in a tropical, jungle pattern? AUSTRALIAN animals having sex amidst a native eucalyptus pattern!
I should probably point out at this point that a LOT of research went into this line. No, seriously. I never thought my career would actively require me to, let alone pay me to spend time Googling NSFW (not safe for work) images. But, alas, here we were, and I certainly learnt plenty about animal reproduction in doing so, all to ensure accuracy across my illustrations.
About a year later, we successfully launched our ‘Wild Fur You Australiana’ range across mugs, tote bags, clutches, purses, tea towels and keep cups, and Myer had signed on to exclusively re-stock shelves with our playful collection.
After roughly two months of being back on their shelves, I got a message from an old high school friend, tagging me in an article Pedestrian TV had posted.
The headline read: ‘MYER HAS TEA TOWELS WITH ANIMALS FUCKING ON THEM, WHICH IS A NICE HOUSEWARMING GIFT’.
https://www.pedestrian.tv/home/tea-towels-animals-myer/
7 News Australia
So, we go again.
Another news syndication saw this article take off, and literally reach VIRAL status in a matter of hours.This time, it was the tea towel that flew out the door, then the mugs, bags and everything else! In fact, the print proved so popular that, to this day, we are running to stay on top of re-stocks across, and continuously looking for new, fun products to add to the collection. Who knew something so ridiculously taboo would end up a best-seller, stamped across everything from memory cards and Valentine’s Day message, to coffee cups and totes, plastered across the internet.
The creators behind the design are Aussie brand La La Land, which sells a range of items including bags, reusable mugs and tea towels in the "Wild Fur You" print.
"A best-selling cheeky Australian themed illustration by our talented in-house artist at La La Land, Lilly Perrott," La La Land's website reads.
"A perfect adult gift to stand against the ordinary."
The artist responsible for the colourful designs, Lilly Perrott, is an in house designer for the brand La La Land and described her style as “creating playful scenes and concepts reflecting pop culture today”.
The artist behind the “steamy” print, Lilly Perrott, actually stocks a similar collection on La La Land. And by similar collection, I mean there’s a mug ($17.95), a clutch ($14.39), and a tote bag ($19.95) with other animals fucking on it.
Designed by Australian artist Lilly Perrott the range is sold on website La La Land and features illustrations with intricate attention to florals and stylised approach to fauna. Lilly draws ‘upon Australia’s finest natives, conjuring up a colourful fusion some of our unique and highly appreciated wildlife, as well as creating playful scenes and concepts reflecting pop culture today.’
So, what’s next on the illustration? Well, it gets a little WILD, and we like to keep you guessing, so be sure to check back soon…