The first emoji set — 176 12×12 pixel images — was created by one person in 1999
Shigetaka Kurita, working for Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, designed the original 176 emoji in 1999 for a mobile internet platform. Each was a 12×12 pixel image created to convey information efficiently in the character-limited early mobile environment. The word 'emoji' is Japanese: 'e' (picture) + 'moji' (character). The original set is now part of MoMA's permanent collection in New York. Emoji became a global standard through Unicode adoption in 2010, and now over 10 billion are sent per day.
Emoji are now a global visual language used daily by billions of people in virtually every country. Finding that this entire system — which has measurably influenced written communication — was created by one person, in a week, on a tiny pixel grid, in Japan in 1999, makes it feel both less and more impressive simultaneously.
“The original emoji — all 176 of them — were designed by one person (Shigetaka Kurita) in 1999, each a 12×12 pixel image. The originals are now in MoMA. Over 10 billion emoji are sent every day. 😊 #OddlyHuman”