To celebrate this year’s Shwmae Su’mae day on the 15th of October, the digital illustration company Mwydro will undertake a live Welsh GIF Designing Marathon on her Instagram channel. The event will provide a unique opportunity for the public to select which Welsh words and phrases they’d like to see in GIF form on social media, and see the design be made on the spot.
For those who are keen users of social media it’s possible you’re already familiar with the work of the illustrator Sioned Young, who runs Mwydro from her home in Caernarfon. Mwydro is the creator of over 250 Welsh language GIFs available for all to use for free on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
By today, Mwydro’s selection of Welsh language GIFs vary from days of the week to popular phrases and proverbs have received over 35 million views. And it’s thanks to the help of her followers that the collection of GIFs illustrated by Sioned Young has developed:
“I taught myself how to design GIFs a year ago, after having some trouble finding suitable Welsh language GIFs for me to use on my Instagram Stories,” says Sioned, “Once I shared my initial designs, I started receiving lots of requests for further Welsh language words and phrases people would like to see in GIF form.”
Shwmae Su’mae Day, held annually on October 15th, encourages everyone to give Welsh a go by starting greeting everyone with a ‘Shwmae’ or ‘Su’mae’. To celebrate, the organisers, Mudiadau Dathlu’r Gymraeg, encourage everyone to attend one of the Shwmae Sumae events to have a taste of using Welsh socially in their area.
“I’m glad to be able to host an event like this as part of the Shwmae Su’mae Day celebrations this year.” says Sioned, “Originally I had though the only purpose for GIFs was to have fun, but I soon discovered the value of GIFs in celebrating and promoting the Welsh language, and in supporting and encouraging people to introduce some Welsh into their social media posts.”
The event will take place live on Mwydro’s Instagram channel on Friday the 15th of October between 8-9pm, with a warm welcome for anyone to join.
END
For further information, images or to organise an interview please contact Sioned Young on info@mwydro.com