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An interview with an Apple emoji designer

66 points

by nate

2 days ago

| past

| 7 comments

| shadycharacters.co.uk

| HN

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9dev

1 hour ago

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> 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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edm0nd

20 minutes ago

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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!

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pimlottc

35 minutes ago

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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

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stringfood

1 hour ago

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

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ollien

2 hours ago

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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">

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holistio

3 hours ago

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

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wpm

3 hours ago

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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

2 hours ago

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I will be. Thanks.

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

I love walnuts.

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falloon

40 seconds ago

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I want justice for this walnut loving individual

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Jtarii

2 hours ago

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

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embedding-shape

1 hour ago

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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.

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j1000

3 hours ago

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

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hbn

1 hour ago

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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.

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dagmx

2 hours ago

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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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blanched

2 hours ago

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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/

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basch

2 hours ago

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

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blanched

56 minutes ago

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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

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wvbdmp

2 hours ago

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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

2 hours ago

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

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hbn

1 hour ago

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

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carrozo