Finland, land of the midnight sun, saunas, black metal, and phones that were once cool, is now also the land of emoji. Finland is the first in the world to release a set of government-approved emoji stickers.
This year ThisisFINLAND country brand website Christmas calendar is full of Finnish emotions (is there such a thing?). Working with Nokia, Finland distilled its essence down to 30 emoji that it will roll out over the next month as Christmas calendar at xmas.finland.fi.
The first three emojis of the Finland sticker set are here: The headbanger throws his phone away and goes to sauna.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
This publicity stunt seems to be getting good amount of international attention:
Finland’s new national emoji include a heavy metal guy and a Nokia 3310
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/5/9674552/finland-national-emoji-headbanger-sauna-nokia
Finland, that northern European haven of moose, death metal, and milk, has just become the first country to create a set of national emoji. More than 30 Finland-specific emoji will be available to download on the web worldwide on December 30th, The Guardian reports.
Finland’s national emojis feature headbanger and naked sauna-goers
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/finland-launches-national-emojis-of-typical-characters-like-the-headbanger
A Nokia 3310 and couple in sauna among 30 tongue in cheek digital symbols to be launched by Finnish government
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland has developed its own national emoji and they’re naked
http://mashable.com/2015/11/04/finland-national-emoji/#Jw63VeaYKsqa
If you’ve ever wondered what a naked emoji would look like, the nation of Finland, of all places, is going to help you find out.
The Nordic country’s official tourism website, ThisisFINLAND, says it’s the first nation in the world to develop its own emoji. The first three? A naked couple enjoying Finland’s national pastime, a good steam; a Nokia mobile phone; and a heavy metal fan. Their official names are “the Sauna,” “the Unbreakable,” otherwise known as the Nokia 3310 and “the Headbanger.”
The sauna speaks for itself, as does the Finnish-designed Nokia 3310, which was almost ubiquitous in the early 2000s. “The Headbanger” is described thusly: “It is dark in Finland and so is the music. There’s a small headbanger living inside of each Finn.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why doesn’t Britain have any emojis of its own?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11978085/Why-doesnt-Britain-have-any-emojis-of-its-own.html
Finland has just released a set of national emojis, but if you had to choose a symbol of modern Britain, what on earth would it be?
I ask because the Finnish government this week unveiled its first batch of “national emojis”. An emoji, for those of you still getting to grips with these newfangled wireless telephones (listen up, Dad), is a tiny picture that can be used instead of words in a text message or email . Emoji is said to be the world’s fastest-growing language. Once it was just little round faces smiling or frowning; now it’s everything from camels to skyscrapers.
But Finland is the first country to create emojis out of national symbols.
The more you think about it, the more alarming it becomes. What do we actually do, or have, that is distinct to us?
Racking my brains for a contemporary British emoji that would be recognisable around the world, I could only come up with famous faces: the Queen, Simon Cowell and James Bond. But other countries do light entertainment and royalty too.
The more multi-cultural we become, the more urgently we need a shared national culture.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oxford Dictionaries Selects an Emoji as Word of the Year
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/11/16/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-emoji/
The Oxford Dictionaries has chosen its Word of the Year for 2015: An emoji depicting the “face with tears of joy.”
Oxford Dictionaries cited an explosion in “emoji culture” over the last year as one of the reasons “face with tears of joy” was selected.
“You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication,” said Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Dictionaries in a statement. “It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps—it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully. As a result emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can now adopt an emoji
Remember, an emoji is not just for Christmas
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2439592/you-can-now-adopt-an-emoji
THE UNICODE CONSORTIUM is offering shoppers the one thing they never knew they needed: the chance to sponsor an emoji and help people better understand each other.
It never occurred to us when we considered our Christmas wishes, but the Consortium can see some demand and reckons that the dumb image auction will bring in a lot of money and help with its plans to unite the globe through common communications.
“Adopting a character is easy. Simply choose your sponsorship level, select our character, and make your donation. That’s all there is to it,” the Consortium said on the Adopt a Character Campaign site.
The emoji are available at three levels of sponsorship starting at $100 for the Bronze investment. The Consortium said that the item would make a unique gift, and we cannot argue with that.
The money will not be used to gild lilies or to build unicorn huts, but will be aimed in the direction of good causes, specifically ones to do with communications.
“Beyond our work standardising emoji, Unicode is tackling some big challenges that might surprise many people,” said Mark Davis, co-founder and president of the Unicode Consortium, in a blog post.
“The vast majority of the world’s living languages, close to 98 percent, are ‘digitally disadvantaged’, meaning they are not supported on the most popular devices, operating systems, browsers and mobile applications.