Ah, the story of the "original" WhirlyPig...

 

Back in the early Nineties my work in the film industry as an art director/propmaster led me from store to store.  As I got out of my van, "Lumpy" as we called it (but that's another story) in some now-forgotten parking space, I noticed a small plastic pig on the asphalt.  As a collector of small bits of nothing specific, I provided this pig safe haven on my console for a few weeks.  He then made it to my desk, amid a myriad of other small bits.  Sometime later, my wife and son, Deb and Blaine, and I shared a meal at a neighborhood Chinese buffet.  Blaine was presented a pinwheel on the straw in his drink, which of course, came home with us.  Eventually, the pinwheel found its way to my desk and onto the pig with no additional means of attachment.  The day came to upgrade my computer with the opportunity to name a new hard drive.  A glance at the pig, a quick flashback to my younger years watching a helicopter with my Dad - a device know as a "whirly bird" in his vernacular, and the astute observation this was not a bird under that pinwheel...

 

Viola! WhirlyPig.

 

Of course, there are assimilations of this notion and the phrase, "when pigs fly".  Our work certainly allows us the chance to do the seemingly impossible from time to time.  But make no mistake, not only is this pig capable of flight - he can hover!  WhirlyPig Design was chosen as our company name to inject encouragement and a little levity into this all-too-often high pressure world in which we live.  With help from the good Lord above and a bit of the infectious grin of our logo, our days seem a bit brighter.  Maybe yours will too.

 

Since the announcement of the WhirlyPig's corporate role, many of our friends, clients and colleagues have contributed a quip in the intended nature of his existence.  We've been sent familiar "pig" and "bacon" references, a Chinese proverb quotation, pig face sketches on packages and my Mom even had a "Pass the Pigs" game.  Just recently, a truck driver poked his head in the door to the shop to make sure there was no "guard pig" on duty before he came in!  Be on the look out for a gathering of these witticisms on a webpage near here soon.  And, if you've got one, send us your WhirlyPig giggle!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-murray-