MEET THE EMOJI INVENTOR

Shigetaka Kurita is the creator of the first-ever set of emoji a Japanese artist in 1999 — the tiny little pictures on our phones we didn't know we needed until we couldn't do without them. New York’s Museum of Modern Art announced its acquisition of the very first generation of emoji: 176 rudimentary icons designed by Shigetaka . It was created to use with cell phone and pagers for Japanese national telecom company NTT DoCoMo, each single-color graphic fits within 12 x 12 pixels. The company gave its original set to MoMA’s digital collection, with license to reproduce the images.

His set has been adapted, updated and expanded over the years to become the emoticons we know today.
But he doesn't want any limelight or praise for what he did. He says if he hadn't come up with the idea, someone else would have.

Although the use of emoji first began with symbols like “:-)” or “<3,” only five of Kurita’s original emoji represent feelings. Others represent horoscopes, the weather, sports and even lunar eclipse, all of which still exist today in our iPhone or Android emoji sets.