Because who doesn't like a visual?

July 30, 2010 5:36 AM

Twaggies, turn your tweets into pics. Take random weird tweets and turn them into even weirder visuals. Twaggies, a website by Kiersten Essenpreis, features illustrations by the extraordinary @K_Essenpreis. (Essen is the German verb for “to eat” and preis means “praise.” So you better leave some nice comments for her or she’ll twag you most unfavorably.) The other half of the team is David Isreal, @resila, who can’t draw a stick figure much less a twaggie, but does all the other stuff for the blog and hit on the idea for it in the first place. Three additional twaggers have contributed in the past – @yaelbt, @mmbemer and @hsugene.
posted by Fizz (13 comments total)

I'm tweets themselves are the funnier part, but not that funny. The illustrations aren't really all that amusing, really. But for some reason when combined they create something mildly entertaining.
posted by charred husk at 5:53 AM on July 30, 2010

(Essen is the German verb for “to eat” and preis means “praise.”

Pretty sure it doesn't. It means prize or price.
posted by I_pity_the_fool at 5:54 AM on July 30, 2010

I do not speak German. I found that on the web and just clipped and pasted into this post. My apologies to the German people and their language.
posted by Fizz at 5:55 AM on July 30, 2010

Hell, I don't understand half the words in this post.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:21 AM on July 30, 2010

Constant Weader twowed up.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:24 AM on July 30, 2010

Israel, not Isreal.
posted by pracowity at 6:58 AM on July 30, 2010

I agree with charred husk -- mildly entertaining. I liked the last one on the page, twitter is just daycare for adults.
posted by indigo4963 at 7:37 AM on July 30, 2010

Strawberry Fields ... Nothing Isreal ...
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:13 AM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah "preis" means price or value. I was in a German supermarket once and saw a big poster with a bagpiper in a kilt and the text "Schottenpreis!". My girlfriend at the time explained it meant "Scottish price!", ie "a price so low that even the Scottish approve". I had no idea that the myth about scots being stingy extended as far as Germany.
posted by w0mbat at 10:55 AM on July 30, 2010

Hooray! Kiersten is an amazing artist and a friend. I'm so glad to see this on MeFi! If you like her work, here's some more:

In addition to the Twaggies site and lots of editorial work, she also recently contributed to several pop culture-themed shows for Gallery1988 in Los Angeles: a ">Goonies piece for the Crazy for Cult 4 show, a couple of Twilight Zone paintings, and maybe her best-known work, Seinfeldology. (There's a description and a key here for all the references).

She is one of two contributors to a design inspiration blog, Thersic, which is always full of neat stuff.

The most recent http://twaggies.com/2010/07/no-087-missdestructo/ were made by Drew DeGraff, who is also super-talented.

Sorry to nerd out on you, I just think these guys are great artists and it would be awesome if more people knew about their work.
posted by Fui Non Sum at 1:05 PM on July 30, 2010

Dang it, I fixed that Goonies link twice. Here's the third try.
posted by Fui Non Sum at 1:15 PM on July 30, 2010

Thanks for the links and info Fui Non Sum. Digging the art.
posted by Fizz at 6:15 PM on July 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Preis" means both "price" and "praise".
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 11:40 AM on July 31, 2010