RUF Yellowbirds

Project type
Commissioned artwork
Paper size
40 x 50 cm
Created for
Alois Ruf from Germany (director of RUF)

The story behind this artwork

RUF cars have always been special, the Yellowbird might be the most recognizable of them all. The modified Porsche beat the Nurburgring Nordschleife record back in 1989 while going flat around every corner. Stefan Roser, the pearless driver behind the feat recalls that “driving the yellowbirds felt like a cross between fascination and downright terror.” In 2017, exactly 30 years after the construction of the original Yellowbird, RUF revived the line. This time, however, RUF developed a carbon fiber body in-house, which means that this is not a Porsche, but indeed a thoroughbred RUF.

Artwork creation process

Johan, who runs the only official RUF resellers in the Netherlands, commissioned this artwork as a gift to quite an illustrated individual. As it happens, Johan pays Sir Alois Ruf, the founder of RUF, a visit every year, and back then, he was looking for a special gift to give! So we decided to capture the original Yellowbird alongside the new version, which broke ground in 2017. But we didn’t stop there. We gathered several images from RUF’s archives to find the first workshop Sir Alois worked in back in 1939 and placed it behind the cars to fill the background. In a way, Sir Alois holds his entire history in his hands. Where he began, where he broke records, and where he cemented his legacy all in one artwork!