As I sat down to create my own emojis I began to look for some guidelines. Having listened to the “Person in Lotus Position” podcast, I learned that emojis should be distinctive, not too big, not representing any brand, etc. I also looked at emojipedia in order to see what kind of emojis already exist so I would not end up repeating someone else’s idea. Then, I started to think about various symbols, objects, and activities that represent my hometown. I looked for inspiration in the old photos archive, creating a list of 15 potential emojis. Afterwards, I tried drawing my first emoji in Paint. It was too painful for me as someone who has zero graphic design skills, so I switched to regular paper and pencils.
My first selected emoji is a soldier, which is a strong association I have with my hometown, because it has the largest in Belarus air defense base as well as other military objects. I was surprised not to find a lot of military-related content in emojipedia, so I felt like this emoji would count as original. However, I wasn’t sure if I should make it universal or not, and I ended up drawing a real Belarusian soldier with an exact same cap and a red star in the center that they wear.
My second emoji is a birch tree – a very prominent symbol of my motherland, which has a lot of birch forests and folklore related to it.
For the third emoji, I tried drawing three different options. First was an orthodox church (because already existing emojis have only other kind of temples), second – a girl with a flower coronet (an expression of local culture), and the third, which I ended up selecting, was a hair braid (something that girls in Belarus wear a lot).
Firstly, I sent my emojis to my mum and sister. I said the following: “I’m going to send you three emojis that I created myself. They’re just drawings, but imagine that they’re real emojis sent as a message. Tell me, what do you think? What thoughts or feelings they evoke in you?”
My sister’s response: “The first one is Sashka [our brother]…looks confused :D”; “Second one is Motherland”, “Third one is femininity, traditions, Rus’ [the old name for lands currently occupied by Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine]”
My mum’s response: “First – surprise, Second – smile, hope. Third – romantic mood, a bit of sadness”.
As the military emoji made my sister associate it with my brother, who went to the army several years ago, I decided to send him these emojis too in order to hear his opinion. He did not reply 🙁
In order to make the 1st emoji more universal and remove any association with a particular person, I changed it. I drew a new face, filled with a khaki color, removing the cap with the red star.
I left the 2nd emoji, the birch, as it is. To the 3rd one, the braid, I added a flower and a red ribbon, which are again somewhat symbolic of Belarusian culture.
I sent the improved emojis to my two hometown best friends.
My friend Ilaria texted the following: “The first one makes me feel disgusted. He is silly and dirty. But at the same time I want to help him. He’s like a savage who has to be taught how to live in our world”. “The second is very nice, meditative”. “The third one reminds of the good old days. Maybe everything was not that good in the past, but we always remember it as something nice”
My friend Anton replied in the following way: “The first one is sad because he looks like a military man. The second one is very pure and real. The third one is simple and with a soul…So cool to receive hand-made emojis!”. I asked him “do you see any connection between the three?”. He replied: “If I look at them all together I’d call them a series of emojis about Russia”.
So, overall my sister was the closest to understanding the communicated message, as she related the two emojis to the theme of Motherland. Also, my friend Ilaria, associating one of the emojis with the “good old days”, perceived the message in the right way, as when I was communicating an aspect of life in my hometown I was obviously thinking of the past because I no longer live there. My friend Anton, calling my emojis “a series of emojis about Russia”, was also close to understanding the cultural/locational reference.