Today is World Emoji Day, and if you’ve been wondering why, check the date on the calendar emoji*.
Click for info.
According to Emojipedia, July 17 was selected because iCal for Mac was announced at MacWorld Expo on July 17, 2002. The calendar emoji, in turn, inspired Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge to declare World Emoji Day. And what’s the purpose of World Emoji Day? A bit of fun, basically.
From Emojipedia. Click for source.
For me, it’s a good day to put two of my newest emoji earring designs on my website. You’ve already had a preview of them, but now you can actually buy the Tupac-inspired Westside emoji earring …
$35 for a single silver stud. Click to purchase.
… and its counterpart, the Eastside emoji.
$35 for a single silver stud. Click to purchase.
Of course, the Westside gang sign, strangely beloved by white frat boys, and the less-popular Eastside are not official emojis. But I’ve always stayed ahead of the Unicode consortium, which creates emojis, by providing jewelry versions of certain emojis that people keep asking for. The most popular is still my middle finger design.
$35 for a single sterling silver stud. Click to purchase.
Other “should be emoji but aren’t” designs are the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” salute; crossed fingers (expected to become a real emoji next year); “I love you,” rendered in American Sign Language; the “sign of the horns” for rockers; and the shaka, or “hang loose,” gesture. If you want jewelry inspired by existing emojis, I’ve got those too. Click here to shop for peace signs, raised hands, punching fists and thumbs up, among others.
Emojipedia’s FAQ has a cute answer for those trying to figure out which emoji is best.
Click for source.
Last year, before the racially diverse emoji faces were finally introduced (THANK YOU!), the website FiveThirtyEight did a real-time list of the top 100 most frequently used emojis and found one morning that hearts had won by a long shot, appearing in over 342 million tweets. Oh, puh-leeze. We all know that when Unicode FINALLY introduces a middle finger emoji (how can it not?!), that thing will be used a billion times in the first minute. We’ve all been waiting so long to flip people off!
If there are any (non-smiling-face) emojis that you want to see in jewelry form — either actual ones or ones that have yet to be invented — let me know in a comment or by emailing info at wendybrandes dot com. I’m always happy to follow up on a good suggestion!
*Don’t let Twitter lead you down the wrong path to — gasp! — FAKE WORLD EMOJI DAY!