On Visual Language
On Visual Language
Text has always lacked tone.
Words carry meaning.
But not always intent.
In 1982, a computer scientist named Scott Fahlman proposed using keyboard characters to separate jokes from serious posts on a university message board.
:-) ๐ for jokes.
:-( ๐ฆ for the rest.
Tilt your head.
A face.
These are emoticons.
Made from punctuation.
Text arranged to look like expression.
In 1999, a Japanese designer named Shigetaka Kurita was solving the same problem.
Mobile messages were short.
Tone was missing.
He created 176 tiny icons โ 12ร12 pixels each.
The word emoji comes from Japanese.
็ตต (e) โ picture.
ๆๅญ (moji) โ character.
Picture character.
Most people use emoticons and emoji as the same word.
They are not the same thing.
But solve the same problem.
One is punctuation rearranged.
The other is a standardized graphic character.
Small observations.
Compounding awareness.
And that instinct is old.
Pictograms on cave walls.
Symbols carved into stone.
Before written language,
pictures were the most direct path to meaning.
Two inventors.
Two decades apart.
Two different approaches.
Same solution: visualization.
We thought we were solving a new problem.
We were using an ancient answer.
Sometimes 1% better
is simply seeing the familiar
a little more clearly.
Better is a direction, not a destination.