Meet the Designer Diversifying Emoji
On a crusade to make emoji more inclusive, Yiying Lu brings optimism, kindness, and a belief in karma to her creative process.
The dumpling emoji. The Twitter Fail Whale (and its Team Coco sibling, the Conan O’Brien Pale Whale). Various identity work, ranging from Disney Shanghai Mickey Mouse to SXSW and the Shorty Awards. Even if you don’t recognize her name, you probably know the delightful work of graphic designer, artist, and entrepreneur Yiying Lu.
When New Silicon Valley needs a quirky cartoon mascot, or a big corp needs a dash of fun and whimsy, she’s the go-to creative. Born in Shanghai, Lu presides over her own bilingual design studio based in San Francisco, which has done work with clients including Disney, Pepsi, Microsoft, Twitter, Sony, Expedia, and more.
But she achieved her arguably greatest success in 2017 with the dumpling emoji. It inspired her to help create Emojination, an organization devoted to making emoji more diverse and inclusive. Since the success of the dumpling, Emojination has become a powerhouse in the world of emoji design: Of the 66 new emoji added to the Unicode Standard in 2018, 45 came from Emojination.
That’s not surprising. Talking to her is, in some ways, like talking to a heart-eyes emoji come to life: She’s bubbly, funny, effervescent, and relentlessly positive. But she’s also a deep thinker about the nature of the creative process, and the battling dualities that are inherent within it.
Magenta talked with Lu about the importance of self-care and kindness in the creative process, how she got over her creative block after the success of the Twitter Fail Whale, the advantages of a messy desk, and the benefits of having no routine.
No routine
My routine is having no routine. Don’t get me wrong: I wish I could wake up every day at 5:30 a.m. and just launch into work. But being a creative is different than being an athlete. You can’t just grind away at it. You have to take your inspiration from everywhere, so my routine is just being human. When I wake up, I don’t just launch into work; I make sure to check in with my body, drink some water, and meditate, before I even look at my email. After that, the only rule is to try to experience something new and talk to someone different every day.
Karma is the best design currency
People think designers are by their nature introverted, but what gets my creative juices flowing is talking to as many different people as possible. When you’re really listening, anyone can be your creative mentor, at least for 20 minutes. And it goes the other way, too: Get inspired by people, and also inspire others. In design, karma is the best currency, so I make time every day to talk to people.
On getting past creative blockage
Everything has a season. Sometimes it’s your spring, and your creativity flourishes, but sometimes in your life it’s winter, and no matter how much you try to get things done, it’s time to hibernate. And that’s OK. Give yourself permission to hibernate, because what you call “creative blockage,” I see as an opportunity to rejuvenate.
Work hard, be kind
Back in 2010, after the Twitter Fail Whale blew up, I didn’t know how to navigate its success. I didn’t see how I could ever do anything that would top it, and I was just so blocked I didn’t do anything for six months except watch Conan O’Brien. This was in the middle of the Tonight Show conflict, which saw Conan leave NBC, but I saw his last sign-off where he said “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen,” and it made a big impact on me. And he was right: Nine months later, his team commissioned me for the Conan O’Brien Pale Whale.
Chaos & creativity
My desk is like primordial chaos. Right now, my desk has three cookbooks on it, a bunch of dumpling drawings, some crystal balls, a dandelion and lotus flower in a MOMA cube, four tarot card designs I’m working on, a container of rose salt, an I-Ching, and some tea cups. In my opinion, mess is the natural state of the creative process.
The one you feed
People are really hung up on dichotomies, like are you an introvert or an extrovert, are you being creative or are you blocked? But I don’t think of it that way. You know the Cherokee story about how there are two wolves inside everyone: the one you feed, and the one you starve? Well, you need to keep both your wolves fed, so there’s no battle inside you. So I’m not an introvert and extrovert, creative sometimes and in a rejuvenation cycle other times. But no matter what I am, I always try to be optimistic. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Magenta is a publication of Huge.
