Tendril collaborated with the team at Microsoft to conceptualize, design and execute a complete refresh of their existing library of Emojis. This included every smiley, person, animal, food, object, and symbol (there’s more than 1800 of them!) Microsoft Work from Home Emoji, and more. The end result is an eclectic, colourful celebration of joy and a heartfelt embrace of visual communication.
My role in this project was to be part of the team that was responsible for Emoji's icons animations.
“As the world moves toward hybrid work scenarios that blend in-person with remote, expressive forms of digital communication are more important than ever.”
Microsoft Design
Emojis have become a universal medium for self-expression and a powerful tool that allows us to communicate our thoughts and feelings in fun, clear, and emotionally resonant ways.
Inclusivity, honesty and vulnerability are all elements we sought out to encompass in our new Emojis. We wanted our designs to celebrate the beautiful differences and imperfections in human expressions. Which is why our Emoji silhouettes aren’t 100% geometrically circular, but instead what we came to call the ‘imperfect circle.’
Every creative decision had to be scalable and flexible enough to convey the message behind each Emoji. To achieve this, we started with 2D illustrations using simple base shapes as a construction logic for all our Emojis before diving into 3D. Creating a design system that maintained consistency across the entire Emoji family.
The launch film itself came to be a combination of several short stories and moments put together. We began with very complex and intricate backgrounds but eventually made some refinements and ended up with the perfect colours and bold forms to make the Emojis POP.
