EMOJIS

EMOJIS

Over six billion emojis are sent each day. Emojis started off as a collection of low-resolution images from Japan but
are now a well-established part of everyday global communication. But, who decides what emojis are available to
users? and who makes their designs? Jeremy Burge, autor of Emojipedia, tells
us that the first set of emojis was designed in 1998 (at a time when texting was
still very new) for a Japanese cell phone company. The set consisted in 176
little images, which were 12×12 pixels each.

These emojis allowed Japanese cell phone customers to send images for the
Some emojis from the original set of
first time, in addition to words and numbers. There were no encoding standards
176. 1998-99 via the MOMA
for these images, so people on different cell services, might see completely
different emojis. For example, if someone sent the emoji for “hamburger,” the recipient might see the emoji for “poo.”

When American cell companies tried to enter the Japanese market, they saw that these little
pixel images were incredibly popular- and that they needed standardizing.
American communications companies turned to the Unicode Consortium. Unicode makes
sure that every letter of every alphabet is encoded with the correct digits to represent it. But
in the early 2000’s Unicode wasn’t interested in emojis. Emojis seemed like a passing fad and Unicode wasn’t sure
they’d be worth taking on. But around 2006, Unicode realized that emojis were here to stay, and started creating a
core library out of the many different emojis already being used among different Japanese cell phone companies.
Unicode decided they would add new emojis to this core library, but that each addition had to be considered very
carefully. Four times a year, Unicode meets to consider proposals for new emojis. Once approved, emojis are
permanent additions to language — there is no removal process. But who can submit a new emoji for
consideration? The answer is: anyone.

Rules of thumb when writing a proposal for a new emoji:

1.- The demand for the emoji should already exist, and submitters should have data to back it up
(hashtag usage on social media sites and Google search trends).
“Person With Folding
2.- The emoji should be visually distinctive, new in the Unicode library. For instance, if you Hands” or “high five”?
wanted to propose “high five,” Unicode might think that it already looks too much like “praying
hands.”

3.- The emoji shouldn’t be too specific (like a rare animal) but it also can’t be too vague (like “an animal”). The
proposal also shouldn’t be something that could turn out to be a fad (e.g. a fidget spinner). After all, the emoji will be
there forever.

Unicode has also banned emojis for logos, brands, specific people…

If approved, these emojis would become part of the library. Various platforms like Google, Apple and Facebook
would then design characters based on the idea of each emoji.
From company to company, the emoji might be facing different
ways, or wear different outfits, but they should all illustrate the
same concept.
“Farmer” emoji, as interpreted by Twitter and Facebook (left) versus Google and Microsoft (right)

Full story at https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/person-lotus-position/

1. Select True or False:

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1. The first set of emojis had 176 little images. True False
2. In 1990, cell phone customers could send text, numbers and emojis. True False
3. Before 2005, Unicode wasn’t interested in emojis. True False
4. Unicode designs the emojis. True False
5. I can submit a new emoji to Unicode. True False
6. I can propose an emoji to Unicode without doing some research first. True False
2. The emoji I propose shouldn’t be too specific nor too vague. True False
3. My company’s logo can be a new emoji. True False
4. Emojis on different platforms (Google, Apple…) must have the same colors. True False
5. Emojis are now part of our everyday life. True False

2. Answer the following questions:

1. Why should the demand for the emoji already exist?

2. Why should all new emojis need to be visually distinctive?

3. Give two examples of emojis that Unicode wouldn’t accept, draw them and write the reason.

______________________ _____________________
______________________ _____________________
______________________ _____________________
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4.- Do you have an idea for a new emoji?

Draw your proposal (and color it too), explain its demand and concept. Remember the 3 rules mentioned above.

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