I was lambasted for ‘talking like a 14 year-old girl’ the other week. No, I hadn’t been caught on the Frozen forums again, I’d sent a mate a request for a pint using only emoji. He’d be the first person to say he wasn’t ‘down with the kids’ (the fact he uses that phrase should tell you everything), so the whole smiley poo trend has probably passed him by, somehow. Let’s be honest though, it wasn’t long ago we all felt the same way. If someone dared to finish an email with a little :) then I’d become genuinely angry. God sake. So childish, pointless, banal even. I mean how can this person expect to be taken seriously?
But here I am writing a blog about how great they are. A confession, I
emoji. I find myself in battles with my girlfriend as to who can come up with the wittiest message using only symbols. It’s creative, it’s fun and as much as anything, it’s challenging. Far from being immature as I once thought, or the end of the English language as some would have you believe, I think these colourful little sprites might well have instigated an interesting moment in the evolution of communication.
So why the turnaround?
I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the St. Bride Foundation a few weeks ago. It has an amazing letterpress workshop with its oldest printing machines possibly dating back as far as the 16th century - the library even has one of the first ever books printed using a letterpress (a William Caxton book), as well as some original Eric Gill sketches of, well, Gill Sans (I probably did look like a 14 year-old girl meeting One Direction with they brought that out). Any designer would absolutely love it there, as would anyone who is at all interested in craft and creativity. The sheer effort and care that went into typography back then is just breathtaking. The work they had to put in to produce a book, the dedication to design and then physically create such beautiful letterforms, when now it’s just two-clicks and we’re bold - makes you think.
So what’s all that got to do with
I hear you ask. Well, fair point.
It’s about communication. When Johann Gutenberg invented the letterpress way back in the mid-15th century, he made a huge contribution to the evolution of communication. It made mass produced printing possible. A ton of other advances in how we communicate mean yours truly can publish this (my first ever blog) while sat on my sofa, supping a brew. I guess I’m trying to say that technology, design and language have all evolved immeasurably. But it’s the combined development of all three that contribute to how we communicate today.
Imagine if you could show the likes of Gutenberg the yo app (justyo.co/), the only function of which is to send friends the word ‘yo’. As a man who pushed the boundaries of communication, and the technology along with it, I’d like to think he’d be amazed. And impressed. (Though, when does the ‘pint’ app come out? Would help me no end).
I’m not saying that using emoji to ask the missus if she minds sacking the diet off for tonight and heading out for the evening,
is the same level of craft and creativity that the likes of Caxton expressed in creating some of the first ever typefaces. No no. But, in this oh so digital age where it’s increasingly easy for anyone to create a decent website with a template and a nice theme, I sometimes worry that we are taking good presentation for granted. That we just expect things to work and look good without much graft. In a funny kind of way these silly little Japanese symbols are pushing us to think harder in the way we communicate. From the way we tell each other our feelings to how we list football fixtures:
There are, of course, tumblrs devoted to this stuff (emojipoems.tumblr.com/), even books re-published in ‘em (emojidick.com/), and I think its marvellous. I thought I’d get bored of seeing emoji eventually but the possibilities are so huge it keeps it fresh. Plus there are more being released, a black Father Christmas being one - where will it end? I’m not sure it will. The next new thing will come around, of course, but these tiny little fellas have had too big an impact to just be a fad. And I for one embrace them.
Emoji are here to stay. Face it.