Oliver Haslam·

Here’s How Apple’s First iOS Emoji Characters Were Created For iPhone

Angela Guzman is a former Apple intern and employee, and while you may not know it, if you’re an iPhone user (or even a smartphone user in general) you likely have a fair bit to thank her for.

With the tenth anniversary of the original iPhone’s debut having past, Guzman is sharing how she and her mentor inside Apple were tasked with creating the very first iOS emoji, all the way back in 2008.

When she was interning at Apple, Guzman knew that she would be working on the iPhone team but did not realize exactly what she would be doing within it. It turned out that emoji would be her work moving forward, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Soon after my arrival and meeting the team (oh and biking to work!) I was handed my project. I was still trying to make sense of the assignment I’d just received when someone asked if I knew what an emoji was. And well, I didn’t, and at the time, neither did the majority of the English speaking world. I answered ‘no’. This would all change, of course, as the iPhone would soon popularize them globally by offering an emoji keyboard. Moments later I learned what this Japanese word meant and that I was to draw hundreds of them. Just as I was looking down the hallway and internally processing, “This isn’t type or an exercise in layout, these are luscious illustrations,” I was assigned my mentor.

There’s also a mention of Steve Jobs, as well as some details on the popular poop emoji and the ice cream cone emoji and how they came into being:

Somewhere in there we also had our first Steve Jobs review, which had created a shared experience of suspense and success when they were approved for launch. And if Steve said it was good to go, I’d say lesson in craftsmanship, check.

Sometimes our emoji turned out more comical than intended and some have a backstory. For example, Raymond reused his happy poop swirl as the top of the ice cream cone. Now that you know, bet you’ll never forget. No one else who discovered this little detail did either.

Over the years since 2008 there have obviously been others who worked on creating new and improved versions of the emoji that we use on iOS devices today, but both Guzman and the man who taught her are credited with creating some of the most popular emoji around.

Emoji have become a huge part of the way we communicate these days, often completely replacing the use of words when conveying emotions and expressions.

The work that Guzman and the iPhone team did continues to impact the way we send and receive messages, and that’s not something many people on the planet can claim.

The full story is well worth a ready, you can check it out in the source link below.

(Source: Medium)

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