Latte art has become a standard fixture of coffee houses all over the place — but not everyone sticks to the ubiquitous flowers, leaves, and hearts. Coffee artist Michael Breach is one such espresso slinger who pushes the envelope with his incredible, caffeinated creations; a native of Baltimore, he moved to Brooklyn in 2010 and made a name for himself drawing everything from celebrity faces to architectural landmarks using espresso and foam as his medium. Now, he’s turned his hand to Internet memes, and, well… let’s just say your latte will never be the same again.
As part of their ongoing Coffee Week, Fast Company asked Breach to recreate detailed, amazingly accurate illustrations of three of the Internet’s favorite meme-tastic animals: Dramatic Prairie Dog, Lil Bub, and Boo the Pomeranian. They made sure to film him while he made them, too, giving us a first-hand look at how he does it; it’s time-lapsed so as to speed things up a bit, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. Oh, and there’s a bonus piece of latte art at the end — I won’t spoil what it is, though, so you’ll have to watch the video to find out what it is. It’s totally worth it. Trust me. Here, have a peek:
For the curious, here’s the history behind the memes:
- Dramatic Prairie Dog — often referred to as Dramatic Chipmunk, despite the fact that the animal featured isn’t actually a chipmunk — first made its appearance on a Japanese television show called Hello! Morning. It reached widespread fame in June of 2007 when YouTube user magnets99 uploaded a five-second clip isolating the prairie dog’s zoomed-in close-up; titled “Dramatic Look,” the video was set to an audio sample taken from the 1974 Mel Brooks classic Young Frankenstein.
- Lil Bub also saw her rise to fame courtesy of YouTube; the cat, who was born with several genetic mutations giving her a permanent kitten appearance, made her debut in a video entitled “Good Job Bub.” Uploaded in November of 2011 by her owner, Mike Bridavsky, the video featured Bub stalking and then pouncing on the camera — and yes, it’s adorable.
- Meanwhile, Boo, the “cutest dog in the world,” has seen his success largely on Facebook. Kesha and Khloe Kardashian both drew attention to his page in October of 2010; since then, he’s gotten his own book series and — weirdly — a death hoax.
I don’t think I need to tell you much about the pile of poo emoji. Been there, done that.
Want to see more of Breach’s work? Check out his Instagram page. You’ll lose hours with it — it’s just that cool. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some coffee to drink.
Images: Michael Breach/Fast Company
