Emoji Wish List

Pei Liew is the brains behind Emoji Wishlist, an instagram account that brings your emoticon dreams to life. From Baskin Robbin's 31 flavors of ice cream to the much needed middle finger emoji, Pei has created an interactive and fun project with enormous potential. We asked her a few questions and might have bothered her with some requests of our own...

So what was your inspiration for reinventing the emoji?

There have been many times where I am texting a friend and think, “man, I could really use a _______ emoji!” and I’m sure plenty of others have felt the same way. The recent diversity update is great but there are so many more additions we could use to express ourselves! I saw this lack of necessary emojis as an opportunity to make an Instagram account, and that’s how @emoji_wishlist came about. 

Also a huge inspiration: bad_haikus and badlydrawnmodels (thanks, guys!)

How do you create them?

For the most part, I’ve been frankensteining them together using existing emojis. If I can’t find the pieces I need, I’ll draw them in Illustrator. 

Do you have any plans to make it into a bigger project, or perhaps someday making your own app?

I started the account with a few of my own ideas just for shits and giggles, but it’s turning out to be a really entertaining way to interact with people and build up a collective wishlist. I love seeing what people request and responding to with their likes and comments so I hope to see the account grow. Haven’t thought about an app but I would like to eventually get it in front of the eyes of real emoji designers and the Unicode Consortium so that perhaps they can make some of our emoji wishes come true!

Is the project on a request only basis, or do you create some of your own wishes?

I scrub through Instagram comments and jot down the requests on a list on my computer. If I think of anything good, I’ll throw it into that list as well.

Do you have an ultimate dream emoji that you're going to someday create? 

Follow and you shall see! (This is my way of stalling until I think of something that lives up to the title “ultimate dream emoji”)

What's the weirdest idea (or request) you've had?

A black hole. 

Is there any idea you absolutely won't create?

Oof. Tough question. I admire people who use art to stir up controversy, poke fun, or make commentary about groups of people, situations, beliefs, etc; but I’d like to keep this project fairly lighthearted. For example, I will not create an emoji Allah. Maybe I’ll do Jesus though. Adding that to the to do list now. 

We really want some more pizza emojis...how many different ones do you think you could make if we were to challenge you? 

Oh my. I’ve worked in two pizza places in the past. Please don’t make me make pizza! 

Also, we would really love a vomiting emoji. I think most of the world would agree.

I second you on that one! Adding it to the list as well :)

Follow Emoji_Wishlist on instagram to keep up with the project!