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An interview with an Apple emoji designer

70 points by nate 4 days ago | 35 comments

9dev 2 hours 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.)

pimlottc 47 minutes ago

That's a good question. Comparing the Softbank emoji from June 2008 [0] and the initial batch of Apple emoji that shipping in iPhone OS 2.2 (Nov 2008) [1], it doesn't look like there are any missing at all, it's a perfect 1:1 mapping.

0: https://emojipedia.org/softbank/2008

1: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2

stringfood 2 hours ago

long eggplant and a smaller Pinching Hand emoji were probably the first to go

edm0nd 32 minutes ago

Its kinda odd how a lot of the major tech companies have self censored emojis like they are some savior of the planet for doing so.

For example the gun emoji by turning it into a water pistol instead of a real looking firearm handgun lol.

WOW THEY SURE CAUSED COUNTLESS LIVES TO BE SAVED W THAT ONE SINGLE MOVE!

dwflanagan 11 minutes ago

I just finished Keith Houston's previous book _Empire of the Sum_, a history of calculators, I'll be reading this next.

holistio 4 hours ago

There is still no walnut emoji. Blonde-haired, black-skinned pregnant man? Yes. Walnut? No.

wpm 4 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

holistio 3 hours ago

I will be. Thanks.

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

I love walnuts.

Jtarii 3 hours ago

Gotta love websites that hijack basic browser functions, in this case forcing smooth scroll on.

embedding-shape 2 hours 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 4 hours ago

Also no thief emoji or pirate emoji. Can someone enlighten me why we don't have it?

hbn 2 hours 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 4 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.

blanched 4 hours ago

Alex Schmidt, a humor writer (formerly of Cracked and others) did this process for the bison emoji. I enjoyed his “miniseries” about it: https://www.bisonemojipodcast.com/

basch 3 hours ago

does the reverse notebooklm exist yet that turns podcasts into longform journalism?

blanched 2 hours ago

Not that I know of. And I generally prefer written pieces to podcasts :).

The show notes for episode 2 have good references (no fun commentary though): https://www.bisonemojipodcast.com/show-notes

wvbdmp 3 hours 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…

holistio 3 hours ago

Or you're texting with people whose native language uses a logographic system.

hbn 2 hours ago

I love the pregnant man emoji, I use it all the time after a big meal

carrozo 2 hours ago

still no Guillotine Emoji either, although not for a lack of trying.

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

ollien 3 hours 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">

aforty 3 hours 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 5 hours ago

In case anyone is actually interested in the emoji:

https://emojipedia.org/apple

Aissen 4 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.

TazeTSchnitzel 2 hours ago

These are very nostalgic. The way Apple's emoji look has subtly changed since then.

amelius 3 hours 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.

reaperducer 3 hours ago

not much more original than GenAI.

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

throawayonthe 3 hours ago

is that not sorta the point? i don't get the genai reference

Tepix 4 hours ago

Are the emojis on Apple (macOS, iOS etc) vector graphics these days?

LoganDark 4 hours ago

They are not. They are perhaps higher resolution than they once were, but still raster:

https://logandark.net/files/328S6690-9Q368809-16843Q53-RR2SN...

NoSalt 4 hours ago

Why does that site feel like I am reading typed text on paper?

CharlesW 3 hours ago

It's a combination of the layout, the typeface (https://monokrom.no/fonts/satyr), and the thoughtful typography.

alnwlsn 2 hours ago

Serif font?

reaperducer 3 hours ago

Did you print it out?

NoSalt 3 hours ago

LOL