An interview with an Apple emoji designer

 (shadycharacters.co.uk)

59 points | by nate 2 days ago

7 comments

  • 9dev 43 minutes ago
    > We mapped almost 1:1 to SoftBank’s set, though Apple chose to omit a few of the more risqué ones.

    Which are these risqué emojis mentioned here? I don't think I have ever seen any that are even slightly graphic, which is probably why all the emoji slang conventions have spread like fire (Aubergine, Peach, etc.)

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    • stringfood 41 minutes ago
      long eggplant and a smaller Pinching Hand emoji were probably the first to go
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  • ollien 1 hour ago
    If the author is reading this, the hyperlink to the book in the first paragraph is broken. Looks like it's attempting to direct you to an absolute url that was meant to be relative.

        <a href="https://books/face-with-tears-of-joy">
  • holistio 2 hours ago
    There is still no walnut emoji. Blonde-haired, black-skinned pregnant man? Yes. Walnut? No.
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    • hbn 14 minutes ago
      I love the pregnant man emoji, I use it all the time after a big meal
    • wpm 2 hours ago
      Be the petty, small change you wish to see in the world: https://joypixels.com/blog/how-to-submit-an-emoji-to-unicode
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      • holistio 1 hour ago
        I will be. Thanks.

        By the way, Walnut Creek is less than 100 miles from Cupertino.

        I love walnuts.

      • Jtarii 1 hour ago
        Gotta love websites that hijack basic browser functions, in this case forcing smooth scroll on.
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        • embedding-shape 44 minutes ago
          Seems to be some sort of design agency or similar, it's basically internet-law at this point that those always fuck with the scroll movements of your browser, for some reason.
    • j1000 2 hours ago
      Also no thief emoji or pirate emoji. Can someone enlighten me why we don't have it?
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      • hbn 15 minutes ago
        I was looking for a pirate emoji like 5 minutes ago. I'm sure it's not the first time but I'm super surprised that still isn't in there. Seems so obvious.
      • dagmx 2 hours ago
        Simply because nobody has successfully pitched the Unicode group to add one.

        Anyone can pitch new emoji, they just have to go through the fairly easy but strict formal process.

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      • wvbdmp 1 hour ago
        What’s next, a cowboy emoji? A ninja emoji? But seriously, as much as I like emojis, I kind of feel like they should stick to emotions. Maybe other intangible things. They’re hard to convey verbally (and succinctly), simple concrete nouns are good for a bit of fun and for UI icons, but really not very useful if we’re being honest. Unless you’re texting with a lizard, or my lazy elementary-school niece who shouldn’t really have a phone anyway…
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        • holistio 1 hour ago
          Or you're texting with people whose native language uses a logographic system.
    • carrozo 20 minutes ago
      still no Guillotine Emoji either, although not for a lack of trying.

      https://www.carrozo.com/guillotine-emoji

  • aforty 1 hour ago
    So cool to get the background story on this. I remember adding the Japanese keyboard here in the US just so I could get access to emojis.
  • amelius 3 hours ago
    In case anyone is actually interested in the emoji:

    https://emojipedia.org/apple

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    • Aissen 2 hours ago
      More specifically, it was this set: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2

      Interesting tidbit:

      > Emoji support required iPhone OS 2.2 and a SoftBank SIM card.

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      • amelius 1 hour ago
        To be honest, the images look like things I've seen a hundred times over in comic books and not much more original than GenAI.
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        • reaperducer 1 hour ago
          not much more original than GenAI.

          What exactly do you think the "GenAI" trained on?

        • throawayonthe 1 hour ago
          is that not sorta the point? i don't get the genai reference
  • Tepix 2 hours ago
    Are the emojis on Apple (macOS, iOS etc) vector graphics these days?
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  • NoSalt 2 hours ago
    Why does that site feel like I am reading typed text on paper?
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