Emojination

After realizing that there was no dumpling emoji in August 2015, Jennifer 8. Lee and Yiying Lu were motivated to create one themselves with Lu as the artist and Lee as the advocate.{{Cite web|last=Kleeman|first=Sophie|title=Meet the People Who Are Fighting for Even More Emoji Diversity|url=https://www.mic.com/articles/130924/jennifer-8-lee-emojination-dumpling-emoji|access-date=2021-06-16|website=Mic|date=21 December 2015 |language=en}} Lee purchased a non-voting membership to the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit consortium whose members select emojis to be added to universal character set, and sat in on a meeting of the group committee in charge of regulating emojis, the Unicode Technical Committee.{{Cite web|title=One Woman's Bizarre, Delightful Quest To Change Emojis Forever|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/there-will-be-dumplings|access-date=2021-06-16|website=BuzzFeed News|date=20 December 2015 |language=en}} This attendance provided Lee with the technical insight of emoji applications and their implementation. A Kickstarter campaign in 2015 raised double the funds needed to help them pay the $7500 fee to join the Unicode Consortium as a voting member.{{Cite web|title=Introducing the Dumpling Emoji, and a More Open Emoji Nomination Process|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/introducing-dumpling-emoji-more-open-emoji-nomination-process-n500056|access-date=2021-06-17|website=NBC News|date=20 January 2016 |language=en}}

Following the success of their initial campaign and realising the huge challenge that existed for everyday people to contribute new emojis, Emojination looked to broaden its scope.{{Cite web|title=One Woman's Bizarre, Delightful Quest To Change Emojis Forever|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/there-will-be-dumplings|access-date=2021-06-17|website=BuzzFeed News|date=20 December 2015 |language=en}} It sought to enable individuals to work together with Emojination to write emoji proposals for submission to the Unicode Consortium. The first of these included working with Rayouf Alhumedhi to develop emoji's featuring people wearing headscarfs.{{Cite web|first=Stephanie|last=Mlot|date=2016-09-15|title=15-Year-Old Pushes for Headscarf Emoji|url=https://uk.pcmag.com/software/84533/15-year-old-pushes-for-headscarf-emoji|access-date=2021-06-17|website=PCMag UK|language=en-gb}} Emojination provided support to Florie Hutchinson in 2017 to help develop the ballet flat shoe.{{Cite web|last=Garber|first=Megan|date=2017-10-21|title=Wouldn't It Be Nice to Have a Woman's Shoe Emoji That Isn't a Red Stiletto?|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-have-a-womans-shoe-emoji-that-isnt-a-red-stiletto/543495/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=The Atlantic|language=en}} They teamed up again to develop a swimsuit emoji, to offer less sexualised swimwear options.{{Cite news|last=Friedman|first=Vanessa|date=2018-07-31|title=The Fight for the One-Piece Swimsuit Emoji|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/style/the-swimsuit-emoji.html|access-date=2021-06-17|issn=0362-4331}} In 2019, Emojination, in partnership with Tinder, helped develop a series of emojis featuring gender-neutral interracial couples.{{Cite web|agency=Associated Press|date=2019-03-09|title=New interracial couple emoji mark victory for partners of color|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/08/new-interracial-couple-emoji-tinder|access-date=2021-06-17|website=the Guardian|language=en}} The organisation successfully submitted a proposal for the inclusion of a hippopotamus emoji.{{Cite magazine|last=Haigney|first=Sophie|title=Should There Be an Emoji for Everything?|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/should-there-be-an-emoji-for-everything|access-date=2021-06-17|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US}} Emojination collaborated with Theo Shear, a US videographer, in the creation of the beaver emoji.{{Cite web|last=Glaser|first=April|date=2019-05-02|title=Why'd It Take So Dam Long to Get a Beaver Emoji?|url=https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/beaver-emoji-proposal-is-hilarious-and-extremely-correct.html|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}} During the development of the piñata emoji, Emojination provided research input to Rebecca Blaesing's application and connected Rebecca with designer Gabriella Gomez-Mont.{{Cite web|first=Ray |last=Routhier|date=2020-02-17|title=Piñata emoji coming to phones in the fall, thanks to Cumberland designer|url=https://www.centralmaine.com/2020/02/17/pinata-emoji-coming-to-phones-in-the-fall-thanks-to-cumberland-designer/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel}} Heart and lung emojis were developed together with Melissa Thermidor of the NHS and Christian Kamkoff of Columbia University.{{Cite web|first1=Steve|last1=Annear|date=February 4, 2020|title=This Mass. General doctor helped get two new medical emojis approved |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/04/metro/this-mass-general-doctor-helped-get-two-new-medical-emojis-approved/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=BostonGlobe.com|language=en-US}}

In partnership with Jeanne Brooks, Emojination created the Emojicon event in 2016.{{Cite news|last=Hess|first=Amanda|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/arts/secrets-of-the-emoji-world-now-with-its-own-convention-emojicon.html|title=Secrets of the Emoji World, Now With Its Own Convention|date=2016-11-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-12|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|date=2016-08-12|title=There is now a conference for emojis|url=https://digiday.com/marketing/now-conference-emojis/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Digiday|language=en-US}} The event aimed to work with brands on how to leverage emoji's in their communications and to facilitate policy discussions relating to emojis. The event was held again in 2018.{{Cite web|date=2018-07-17|title=Why There Are No Interracial Emoji Couples, And Everything Else I Learned at Emojicon|url=https://observer.com/2018/07/why-there-are-no-interracial-emoji-couples-and-everything-else-i-learned-at-emojicon/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Observer|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Schwedel|first=Heather|date=2018-07-16|title=At the Emoji Spelling Bee, Shruggies Are Not Good Enough|url=https://slate.com/technology/2018/07/a-dispatch-from-an-emoji-spelling-bee-where-shruggies-are-not-good-enough.html|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}}

In 2019, directors Martha Shane and Ian Cheney released The Emoji Story (original title: Picture Character), a documentary about the rise of emojis. The film follows some Emojination's proposal writers as they endeavor to add emojis to the universal keyboard.{{Cite web|title=Martha Shane and Ian Cheney's The Emoji Story {{!}} Magazine {{!}} MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/508|access-date=2021-06-17|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en}}

== References ==

{{reflist}}

• {{official website}}

Category:Emoji

Category:Organizations established in 2015