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Bold 3D typography on a white background reads “MAKE IT POP”. The letters feature a metallic gradient of blue, silver and copper.

&Walsh releases emojis for graphic designers and the wider world all about “life in 2020”

The emojis play on every design in-joke in the book, from faux Adobe logos to file naming and 3D wizardry, there are even portraits of famous designers to help us “express ourselves in isolation”.

Words
Jenny Brewer
—
Date
23 April 2020

Jessica Walsh’s New York agency &Walsh has released hundreds of emojis created specifically for graphic designers to add to their Slack channels, Instagrams and more, as well as a set for the wider world about working from home and “life in 2020”. The designer-targeted emojis play on every design in-joke you can think of, jabbing fun at clients, hipsters, and all the tropes of designer life, from deadlines to laptop stickers, imploding inboxes, file naming and eyedropper usage, not to mention tweaking Adobe icons to comedic effect. There's even emoji portraits of famous designer names including Paula Scher, Susan Kare, Eddie Opara, Debbie Milman, Mona Chalabi, Steven Heller and her old partner Stefan Sagmeister.

The emojis aimed at the rest of society feature jokes about what to wear for a virtual meeting, depressing news headlines, and wanting to ‘reset’ 2020.

Jessica Walsh hopes the images can help us “express ourselves in isolation, as communication is all digital. We’re all going through unique/difficult times, and this calls for new emojis to communicate these shared struggles. We hope these can provide some delight or comic relief to people's day... or just make it a little easier to communicate how shitty people are feeling!”

The designer emojis project actually started last year, Walsh tells It's Nice That. “As visual people, we LOVE emojis as a fun way to express our emotions and add joy to our conversations. However, we felt the current emoji set was limiting for the unique things we go through as designers.” Then, when Covid-19 happened, the team began to add emojis that related to life during the crisis. Walsh and designer Rachel Denti started many of the ideas, but eventually, the entire team contributed to the set.

“These are some of my favourites,” she says, “but I love so many of them.”

Gallery&Walsh emojis

A computer monitor displays the text “WORK FROM HOME” in bold black capitals. The word “WORK” is crossed out with a red line, with the word “SLEEP” written above it in red.
An illustration of a white invoice with a curled bottom corner. The text reads “INVOICE”, followed by “DESIGN SERVICES ...$200” and “THERAPY...$400”.
An illustration of a wall calendar for “2020”. The word “SHITTY” is written across the date grid in black marker and circled in red.
A name tag with a red border and white centre. The red header reads “HELLO I AM” and the white space below reads “GOING INSANE” in black handwritten text.

“I had a hard time deciding to stop and picking an end date to release the project,” Walsh continues. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and in the last weeks I kept coming up with new ideas. It's also interesting to note there is a big difference between designing Slack emojis that can be used at small scale and sticker pack emojis that can be used on Giphy / iMessage stickers. We designed certain emojis to work at tiny sizes, others take advantage of sticker size which allows us to create more complexity in the design. There was a lot of testing involved on many different platforms.”

The packs can be downloaded for Slack, iMessage (free on the App Store), Whatsapp, and email. They are also on Giphy so users can add them to Instagram Stories.

Gallery&Walsh emojis

An illustration of a person’s head against a plain white background. They have brown hair styled in a side-parted quiff and green eyes.
Above
Left

Stefan Sagmeister

Right

Paula Scher

A 3D render of a stylised person’s head with shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes. They are looking forward with a slight smile.
Above

Paula Scher

A 3D render of a glossy white ghost with its pink tongue sticking out. The words “DEAD LINE” are written in bold black capitals across its face.
An illustration of a gold award ribbon with a purple bow. The silver centre reads “WORST YEAR EVER” in bold black capitals.
A square logo with a dark navy background and a bright blue border. The word “Yas” is written in the centre in a bold, bright blue sans-serif typeface.
A 3D render of a yellow figure with brown hair, waving one hand. They wear a grey blazer over a white shirt, pink striped shorts with frayed edges, and pink slippers.
A 3D render of a yellow hand holding a small white card. The card features the text “YOUR LOGO HERE” in a bold, black sans-serif font.
An illustration of a golden-brown loaf of bread in a dark grey baking tin. The tin features the word “Breadmaster” in white capitals, and three yellow sparkles float above the loaf.
A blue digital message bubble on a white background reads “just 1 more change”.
A 3D render of a purple devil emoji with a mischievous expression. A name tag is stuck to the bottom, reading “HELLO MY NAME IS CLIENT”.
A red ticket with a semi-circle notch at the top. Bold white text across the centre reads “NEED MORE SHOWS”.
A pixel art illustration of the Chrome dinosaur. The black figure stands in profile on a thin horizontal line against a white background.
A 3D render of a yellow emoji-style figure wearing a blue wizard’s hat and red and blue 3D glasses. The hat is decorated with white stars and the text “3D”, and the figure holds a digital stylus.
A blue email app icon featuring a white envelope. A red notification badge in the top right corner reads “9,432”.
An illustration of a bald person with round glasses and a grey goatee. They are looking directly forward with a slight smile against a plain white background.
Above
Left

Steven Heller

Right

Mona Chalabi

An illustration of a person with long, wavy brown hair looking directly at the camera. They have a neutral expression and wear a black high-neck top.
Above

Mona Chalabi

An illustration of a generic white document icon with a folded top corner. Below the icon, text reads “final_final_FINAL03.ai”.
An illustration of an orange zine tilted on a white background. The cover features the words “my FIRST ZINE” in three different typographic styles.
An illustration of a yellow emoji face with black hair and round glasses. They wear a bright red bowler hat.
An illustration of a smiling face with blonde hair tied in a top knot. The figure has a thin blonde moustache and large blue eyes.
A grey laptop lid is decorated with three black and white stickers. They include a logo for “Generic Brand”, a smiley face, and an Apple logo next to the words “indie band logo”.
An illustration of a foot wearing a white sock with black stripes at the top. A black three-strap slide sandal is worn over the sock.
An illustration of a yellow hand making a pointing gesture against a grey grid background. Three yellow four-pointed stars sparkle around the fingertip.
A 3D render of a loudly crying emoji with large blue tears. An eyedropper tool is positioned as if selecting a colour from one of the tears.
A smiling yellow emoji wearing a brown cowboy hat. A black line drawing of a lasso is looped around the right side of the face.
A 3D render of a yellow smiley face with a white strip of tape across its mouth. The tape features the text “NDA” in bold black capitals.
An illustration of a yellow emoji face with a frowning mouth and a skeptical expression. A magnifying glass is held over one eye, showing a pixelated brown blur.
A 3D render of a yellow emoji character dressed as a magician with a black bowler hat and green bow tie. They are juggling a magnifying glass, a serif capital “T” and a colour picker tool.
An illustration of a dark blue file icon with the letters “Af” in light blue. A bright blue tab is stuck to the top left corner with the word “STRESSED” in all caps.
An illustration of three banknotes stacked together. The top note features the word “EXPOSURE” in bold, capital letters.
A cream-coloured tote bag features bold black text that reads “graphic design is my passion”. The words are arranged in a simple, centred layout.
A red rectangular sticker with a curled corner on a white background. Bold white text reads “DE$IGN 4 CA$H”.
A 3D render of the words “PAY ME” in bold, blocky lettering. The text features a yellow to orange gradient and is set against a plain white background.

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Further Info

andwalsh.com

About the Author

Jenny Brewer

—

Jenny oversees editorial output across It’s Nice That. Get in touch with writing pitches for features or opinion pieces, big creative story tips, or questions about all things editorial. jb@itsnicethat.com

To submit your work to be featured on the site, please see our Submissions Guide.

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