Sick of stripes, plaids, and other boring, basic pillows? You could always follow the lead of social media superstars and start adding character to your space with emoji pillows. These plush versions of our oft-used text expressions are taking over as a key design element that adds personality, whimsy, and comfort.
Express Yourself
“Emoji” is a Japanese word that essentially means “picture character”. And in fact, the Japanese have been using them for much longer than anyone else. Emojis take the 1990s staple emoticon (where we create pictures with everyday key characters, like colons and parentheses) further by making a picture available with a single tap.
They’ve caught on because they can actually communicate complex and sometimes uncomfortable emotions easily. This is important to recognize for anyone who believes that text communications, and by extension, emojis, are too simple and impersonal.
To realize their impact on communication, imagine life without them. Would people texting one another always be comfortable talking about how they feel about one another, or how they’re feeling themselves at that time? Maybe not, but it’s pretty likely they’re not daunted by sharing a slew of hearts or a sad face. Without emojis, the way we text may be even more impersonal.
Emojis are a lighthearted way to react without having to craft a suitable response. This speeds up response times and social satisfaction. People who don’t know each other well, and may not have so much to talk about at first, can break the ice through emojis. If anything, it’s made us more social, and adds human expression to every digital communication.
Hot Off the Screen
Emojis are so adept at encapsulating how we emote with a single picture, that they’ve increasingly become popular outside of the digital environment. What started out as Apple’s strategy to capture the Japanese audience by including emojis on the iPhone has taken on a life of its own. Major motion pictures and merchandising, as seen via cool emoji pillows, have made emojis an irreplaceable part of our culture.
Consider the ten most popular emojis – they’re all faces conveying emotion, not the random objects we scroll through daily.
The joyful face crying with laughter is number one, proving that at heart, we’re good humored people who want to share in on the joke. And when an emoji puts it so succinctly, why would keep them strictly on our phones?
Today, you can decorate your space with emojis that speak to others about who you are and what you value. Have a generally suspicious, skeptical worldview? A little side eye emoji lets others know you don’t take yourself too seriously. Love on the brain? Keep hearts in your eyes all of the time with a corresponding emoji pillow – or give one to someone who invokes that emotion in you.
Interior decorating is all about personal touches that pull a room together, but there are no hard and fast rules for doing in the right way. The history of emojis is fun and interesting and having emojis around us can make the space more relaxing. Keep your space modern and slightly off-kilter with humorous expressions everyone recognizes – they’ll get exactly what you mean.
