On World Emoji Day, four artists create exclusive emojis that best reflect the current times
Recent data from Bobble AI, an artificial intelligence company, has revealed that the use of emoticons has increased by a whopping 58 per cent on social media during the lockdown. They've been used to express feelings of joy, health concerns and also, the work from home situation many of us find ourselves in. Emojis are more than just a lethargic way of saying something; sometimes, they encapsulate all that one cannot possibly put into words. Today being World Emoji Day — an annual observation to celebrate emojis started by Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia, in 2014 — we invited four artists to create icons that reflect today's inexplicable times.
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When Karuna is here to stay
It was only in March that Union minister Ramdas Athawale gave us a glimmer of hope with his Go Corona Go chant. Although it was subject to many EDM remixes later, the slogan was hardly prophetic. Graphic designer, illustrator and visualiser Tanya Eden channelled her frustration about it into an emoji. "It can't be karuna go anymore, because it isn't going anywhere," she says. So, the alternative she proposes, in light of the daily news of the COVID-19 cases rising, is to say, "Bahut ho gaya karuna karuna!"
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Mood swings
Representing our perennially shifting moods through each phase of the lockdown, designer Komal More has created six emojis. Explaining the idea, she says, "I have never experienced something like this before. So, when the lockdown was first announced I was like 'What is this exactly?' and in the second phase I said, 'Okay, we will get through this; everything will be fine.'" But things changed from thereon, and the consequent phases left her with a mixed bag of emotions with stricter regulations being imposed in Mumbai due to the surge in cases. And perhaps, her fifth and sixth emoji sum up the wild emotional roller-coaster we've been put onto best.
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Wide awake
City-based artist Tanishkya D'Lyma is constantly inspired by other artistes, especially musicians. The emoji she created is titled Wide Awake, after Chris Cornell's song. The cloud represents the uncertainty that the pandemic brings. The open eye is a literal translation of sleeping with one eye open while the closed eye shows how our usual lives have been put to slumber — leaving reality to feel like a dream. "It also denotes our retreat to safety, rather our attempt to retreat, physically and mentally," says D'Lyma.
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Longtime lockdown
Robert Frost wrote, 'Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.' But now, we long to be out. So, Goa-based production designer and illustrator Devika Dave encapsulated it in an emoji titled Longtime Lockdown. "The idea comes from the space we have inhabited, and how we are fully consuming it every day," she says.
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