Pando: Original GitHub Octocat designer Simon Oxley on his famous creation: "I don't remember drawing it"

By Carmel DeAmicis , written on July 8, 2013

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.

Although Oxley is renting his house at the moment, he tells me he'll be buying a home soon with the money he made from the Twitter bird. I, gullible as they come, take this statement at face value until he laughs and tells me Twitter purchased his bird for a pittance on iStockphoto.com. Oxley made $3-$4 off it, although it did propel him to mini-graphic-design stardom.

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