Simon Oxley

Simon Oxley. () Designer of graphics and muppet mascots.
Most notably the designer of the original bird, Octocat for Github, Bitly fish, Turntable.fm mascots, design and the logo.

extract from Pandodaily article: Simon Oxley is the sort of fellow who makes dry jokes so subtle that Americans will miss them. He's not a developer, techie, or household name in Silicon Valley. He's a humble British bloke with a peaceful life in his house in the Oxford countryside, with his Japanese wife and two young sons. In fact, the only thing that hints at his significance in the startup world comes in the form of a few wooden birds, spray painted black and hanging on the walls. Oxley designed the original Twitter bird in 2006 - an elegant, simple creature that decorated the early days of the site. It has since lost the spotlight to the newer cartoon version.

Oxley didn't discover his design fame until he was watching CNN in the living room one day. "Suddenly, an anchor was standing in front of a screen with the twitter bird really big on it," Oxley recollects. "I called my wife into the room and said, "˜Look at that! CNN's got my bird!'" Oxley soon started getting calls from media outlets like Wired and the Washington Post, who did pro...

Basingstoke Technical College 1986 - 87
Bournemouth and Poole College of art and design 1987 - 1989