World Emoji Day: How emoticons inspire homegrown artists and creators

Spinning a yarnMehak Grover founder macknack_As a corporate employee in a Big 4 audit firm I started crocheting on my motherrsquos insistence to relieve stress Eventually I left my job to pursue crocheting fulltime What began as a stress buster is now my happiness and my business My artworks are inspired from the things we usually see in our daily lives For instance if I eat an ice cream or use any emoji in my chat I crochet them Some emojiinspired crochets in my collection include beer pints avocado honey bee cherries evil eye and moreExpress in styleArya Bhansali and Prishita Mehta cofounders cutsnjoysOUR emoji bento cakes are in trend among the GenZ They ask us to doodle select emoticons to convey their emotions and highlight core memories It also looks super cool and fun These cakes can come in a variety of flavours like chocolate vanilla lotus biscoff hazelnut butterscotch Nutella and blueberry among others Some of our alltime favourite emojis to draw we use whipping cream for it are the warm heartfelt ones like sun smiles flowers clouds and heartsOffbeat celebrationsAashna and Zoya Shaikh bakers cakealicious_by_azWe got a cake order request from a client to make a customised emoji cake but she was a bit sceptical if we would accept it She wanted a 3D poop emoji cake After much thought we gave it a go as it was something unique We were a bit unsure about structuring because cakes are usually round or square The most difficult part was to cover the entire cake with fondant in one go so therersquos no extra creasing and layering But we were able to do it When our family members learned about it they laughed a lot especially our younger cousins Itrsquos still the talk of the town People refuse to believe that the 3D poop emoji was actually an edible delicious dark chocolate cakeMemories from TaiwanAlisha Huang visual designer inkedpencilI am half Chinese so as a family we naturally love noodles I remember a hotpot I had on my visit to Taiwan It was so delicious that I had to draw it I wanted to give it a humanlike yet cartoonish and scrumptious look I turned to a few emojis for inspiration In this artwork you can spot the noodle bowl emoji fish cake emoji and the omelette emojiKeep an eye outAmal Nair Kirthi Pillai and Yash Shetty cofounders doodlemapulsWe are a group of architects and visual artists and our work spans across various mediums including murals architecture digital art interior design and graphic design One such digitallycreated artwork called Eyes of the World explores the intricate relationship between individual perception and everything around us Utilising the motif of the human eye as a central element this piece serves as a metaphor for the ways in which we see interpret and connect with the world around usAn everlasting smileTawfik Manham artist tawfikmanhanI moved from Mumbai to the UK nearly a year ago I had begun an initiative seven years ago where I made a postcard a day One such postcard featured a simple but powerful emoji mdash the smiley face It is used widely across social media The centre is painted with acrylic metallic golden colour such that if you expose it to sunlight or any good source of light it tends to reflect and shine just like the infectious emoji