Both emojis and icons are graphic symbols that best represent ideas in a non-linguistic manner, but their difference remains in the purposes they serve. Emojis are made to engage emotions and feelings about a situation. Icons are the opposite, they are made to transcend all emotions and be purely functional.

We prefer to go by… OTTOMOJI. Our collection of OTTO Brand Lab inspired emojis are designed to enhance a conversation. Whether it be included in messages, promo collateral, or just for additional visual graphic fun, they are used to symbolize emotions, expressions, humor, symbols, metaphors, office objects, everyday objects, and of course our people.

The ability to create a sentence with full emojis is a powerful language of its own. Humor also plays a nice role in these tiny illustrations. Icons, however, are more limiting.

The most beneficial reason to use emojis is to help differentiate a simple word versus showing empathy. These tiny illustrations help to personalize communication, where sometimes words may be misinterpreted. They are also quite helpful in quick responses in such a fast-paced technologically leading world.

In the case of OTTO Brand Lab, we wanted to first and most importantly show our ability to illustrate and design a cohesive branded system. After watching our tiny OTTOMOJI’s come to life, they really began to represent us as a team. To go one step further, as we normally like to do, we loved the idea of personalizing each individual with a special little something that best represented them. A photograph is nice, but OTTOMOJI’s allow us to express ourselves creatively and sets us apart from others in the digital world.

Emojis have become the language of millennials. They have even begun to rub off on past generations. When designing a customized emoji suite, it is important to create a branded theme. First, name your emoji suite. Then, create a mood or feeling you want to convey. In the case of OTTOMOJI, we designed a full collection utilizing our brand color and a graphic design theme throughout. Lastly, think of ways to add humor to bring them to life.

Humor can make an emoji successful. One of our favorite OTTOMOJI’s in the full design suite is our Miss. Statue of Liberty holding a light bulb. Rather than the iconic torch, we poked a bit of fun at the idea of coming up with an “idea”.

Emojis are illustrated in the basic 32×32 pixel format. As long as they can be read at 100% scale, the emoji can take on infinite graphic possibilities.

Emojis don’t need to be fun as much as they need to be meaningful in order to be successful.

Take the standard smiley for an example. The different emoji faces have had such an emotional impact on people, that they can be seen on all types of merchandise worldwide. The heart is another iconic emoji that now ranges in a variety of colors. To go one step further, people like to use certain color hearts to coordinate with certain pictures around social media. Art lives among us, so naturally, it lives within us as well.

Emojis are understood universally. They relate to all skin colors, genders, religions, flags, etc.

We, as designers, are big believers in print AND digital. Technology and the future are running rapidly hand in hand, but what if one day our technological advances were to suddenly end? Print is necessary to inform and educate people around the world through packaging, marketing materials, labels, etc. It would be foolish to compromise this type of functionality. Plus, what’s a world without branding? zzZz! It is our responsibility and desire to help brands flourish in both print and digital marketing.