Emoji have revolutionized how we text. The weird little pictograms so efficiently negate the need to come up with actual words. Feeling enthusiastic about tonight’s party? Instead of scaring people off with "!!!!," use the dancing lady. Ready to exit a conversation? Flash a peace sign. Don’t want to say “I love you?” Use a heart. You’re never a jackass with emoji. They’re both too saccharine and too ironic to convey a mean spirit.
Ikea’s banking on that pseudo-psychology to make their own in-house line of emoji take off. The Swedish furniture behemoth just rolled out over 100 custom made icons that represent its products. There’s the familiar Klippan couch, the Billy bookshelf, and the blue bag that you now use as a laundry sack. There’s even a plate of their famous (free with purchase) Swedish meatballs. While aesthetically, the two-toned shading of the Ikea Emoticons actually makes them look more like Google icons than regular Emoji, in terms of personality, they're as kooky and often as inexplicable as the originals.
Ikea Emoticons can be downloaded and installed into smartphone keyboards (just like regular Emoji). The point of which, according to a video from the company, is to streamline domestic lines of communication. “It’s simply impossible to feel offended if you tell someone to clean up, if you say it with Ikea emoticons,” says the narrator. “Clear the air with your loved ones.” Yeah! No one minds getting nagged about dirty dishes so long as it comes in a cute emoticon of pot boiling over.
Pictograms have always played a considerable role in Ikea's marketing materials, particularly in their famous instructions for assembly, but this new app might be about more than marketing. It signals a future where emoticons began to eclipse both marketing copy and written words more broadly. The company isn't alone: this past week, in honor of Saturday Night Live's blow out 40th anniversary special episode, NBC rolled out an app that includes SNL emoji. Coneheads, Stefon, Mary Katherine Gallagher, and more are all represented as little characters. And less corporate, but equally comprehensive, is newly launched Lesbian Emoji. Soon brands, institutions, ideas, and maybe even individual people, can have their own custom pictogram languages, bringing us one step closer to never needing words again. Just eggplants and Klippan couches.
