Style combination · Contrasts

Emoji Pictographic Language × Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning

Emoji are standardised, encoded pictographs; the shared trait is a pictorial reply, but these are authored, larger character performances.

From the research on Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE)

Mix them and make something Emoji Pictographic Language Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Emoji Pictographic Language, their arrangement from Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning, the finish from Emoji Pictographic Language. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Emoji Pictographic Language Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE)

Type from Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning: Hand-lettering
Rounded sans
Colour from Emoji Pictographic Language: Full polychrome
Flat fields
Form from Emoji Pictographic Language: Pictogram
Stylised figuration
Composition from Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Emoji Pictographic Language: Gloss & highlights
Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning

Hello

Mochiy Pop One, standing in for Manga-derived lettering and onomatopoeia conventions

Text · Emoji Pictographic Language

Pictographs typed as characters and set inline in running text. Born on Japanese mobile phones (J-Phone's 90 monochrome signs of 1997, the 176 single-colour signs that Shigetaka Kurita led for NTT DoCoMo's i-mode in 1999, on 12 x 12 pixel grids) and encoded in Unicode in 2009-2010, each emoji is one face, hand, object, food or flag centred on a square em with no ground. Unicode fixes the code point and name; each vendor draws its own full-colour version, flat, glossy or rendered in 3D, so one sign circulates in many visual dialects.

Shippori Mincho; Emoji Pictographic Language used The 12 x 12 dot external-character (gaiji) glyphs in which Japanese carriers first delivered emoji, typed into mobile mail and i-mode pages beside kana and kanji and Apple Color Emoji (2008)

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Emoji Pictographic Language, with a counter-accent from Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Emoji Pictographic Language Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE)

#ffcc4d ground · 36%
#664500 ink · 14%
#f4a223 accent · 18%
#e8795c accent · 14%
#dd2e44 accent · 10%
#7ab8e8 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffcc4d;
  --ink: #664500;
  --accent-1: #f4a223;
  --accent-2: #e8795c;
  --accent-3: #dd2e44;
  --accent-4: #7ab8e8;
  --font-display: "Mochiy Pop One", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Emoji Pictographic Language: Reuse emoji artwork only from the open sets and on their terms (Twemoji graphics CC BY 4.0 with attribution, OpenMoji CC BY-SA 4.0, Noto fonts SIL OFL 1.1, Fluent Emoji MIT); the platform sets are their vendors' own artwork, so do not lift their drawings into a logo or print. Remember too that a code point reaches each reader in that reader's vendor drawing, which may differ in detail, colour or even meaning from the one you chose.

The two styles

A smiling cartoon Earth is hugged by two yellow hands, surrounded by red hearts and short yellow rays on a white background. The word “Together” appears below in thick, rounded brown lettering.

1997–present · East Asia, Global / networked Emoji Pictographic Language Pictographs typed as characters and set inline in running text. Born on Japanese mobile phones (J-Phone's 90 monochrome signs of 1997, the 176 single-colour signs that Shigetaka Kurita led for NTT DoCoMo's i-mode in 1999, on 12 x 12 pixel grids) and encoded in Unicode in 2009-2010, each emoji is one face, hand, object, food or flag centred on a square em with no ground. Unicode fixes the code point and name; each vendor draws its own full-colour version, flat, glossy or rendered in 3D, so one sign circulates in many visual dialects. 2011–present · East Asia, Southeast Asia, Global / networked Chat Reaction-Sticker Cartooning (LINE) Cartoon character art made to be sent in chat: one figure performing one reaction, such as thanks, sulking, panic or a greeting, cut out on a transparent ground and sold in sets of a recurring cast. Where kawaii soothes, these sets stage exaggerated, comic emotions, often with a few lettered words, and must read at thumbnail size. It descends from manga cartooning and borrows kawaii roundness only as a base that the reactions then break; the emoji influence is the shared job of a pictorial reply, not a shared look.