Examples of the original set of Apple emojis that I was responsible for creating and designing.
As an Apple intern, I had the pleasure of co-designing Apple’s original emoji set. The creation of these tiny icons went beyond the pixels on the screen for me, both personally and professionally. It was a unique opportunity to contribute towards the globalization of a visual language that would allow all of us to communicate regardless of our spoken language. It was also a project that served as the means to a lifelong friendship with my then mentor, Raymond Sepulveda, with whom I designed the set. Between Raymond and I, we designed close to 500 emojis.
For 3 months, small Photoshop canvas were the pages of my sketchbook, where I drew a variety of veggies, fruits, hearts, famous places, clothing, shoes, candy, cars—the list could go on. Each one contained specific depictions and cultural meaning in order to properly integrate alongside other Japanese telephone carriers. Emojis had been part of Japanese culture since the 90’s therefore the iPhone needed to support them. They also contained personalized touches, where I brought my own creativity to them. For example, the blue dress was based on one of my sister’s real life creations and the yellow polkadot bikini was based on the song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'' that I often listen to in the car growing up in the Florida Keys.
On the left, the turquoise dress my sister made that inspired the Apple emoji I designed shown (middle image). Years later this emoji would be similarly depicted on other platforms matching the style of the cut and belt, along with a similar color palette. For example, as seen on Samsung, Twitter, LG, Facebook, Google and others.
Soon after emojis reached the Japanese market the rest of the world wanted them. The demand was so high, that developers started to create “Easter eggs” (applications that included them in secrecy) so that they could be shared in other countries. Soon after, Apple decided to include them on all iPhones, making them officially accessible to the world. This would be the very first set of emojis to reach a worldwide audience. Today, you can find emojis on Android, Twitter, Facebook, Samsung, etc. Many of these platforms have based their sets on the original emojis from Apple. Take the bikini or blue dress—many of them have dots on the fabric or portray the same sleeveless cut. It is fascinating for me to see this evolution, and to see how these personal touches have shaped the way we communicate.
Prior to Apple’s emoji launch, and as a budding designer, I got to learn about user experience design and illustration from some of the best in the industry through my internship project. Designers like Raymond and Bas Ording coached and cheered me on. At the end of my internship, and in order to land a full-time offer, I had to present my summer work to the then Senior Vice President of iPhone, Scott Forstall. Oh, and Steve Jobs had to approve them in order to ship them (but that’s a whole other story!).
At times, to rapidly create emojis certain parts were reused. In this case, the ‘happy poop’ became the ice cream swirl.
I recall being one of two women in a room full of men, and the only designer present. All of us were nervous, yet eager to present our work to Scott. After numerous technical presentations, it was finally my turn. I got up, plugged my laptop to a projector and would proceed to show these emojis for the very first time. The look on Scott’s face was memorable, he smiled at every emoji that took center stage on the screen. Thankfully, as my time concluded in California and once I was back to grad school in the East Coast, I received an offer to come work full-time. Little did I know then what kind impact this project would have. Little did I know then that years later I would continue to see these emojis everywhere, including in the physical world. You can now find emoji in the form of toys, food and clothing to name a few.
Describing my career journey on stage to help inspire and empower underrepresented groups to enter tech.
Today, the Apple Emoji project has been a great source of inspiration and empowerment for the underrepresented community in tech as it demonstrates how an immigrant can contribute globally through design. This is why I share this story on stage and on interviews. On a micro level, this project serves as a full-circle moment where I was now drawing to communicate at a global scale; in contrast to how I used to draw to communicate as a child when I first moved to the US from Colombia as I did not speak English. For these reasons, I couldn’t be more excited to have entered the tech world and influence global communication through the making of these emoji.