The Glorious Return of the Google Blobs… Restyled!
Emoji are a significant part of how we interact on mobile, which is why we’re pleased to see Google’s new emoji font. Noto Emoji takes our most bright, rich photographs and reduces them to their minimal necessities, turning humans into blobs in the process.
Progression
Image Source: Google
In a blog post published on Friday, Jennifer Daniel, Google’s creative director of emoji and expression, discussed the motivation for Noto Emoji and how it harkens back to the early days of the small expressive graphics. Daniel also discusses how the emoji on today’s finest Android phones were changed and how they convert to the new typeface. Not every transition was a one-to-one swap.
The choice to bring back the blobs for Noto Emoji came down to aesthetics, according to Daniel. “Color is ingrained in the design of some characters (like skin tone or hair color). It didn’t appear good to use hash marks or polka dots to substitute color. That, my darling, is how the blobs returned.” Daniel also emphasizes how reverting to blobs makes things vague, describing them as “relatable without retaining a gender differentiation.”
ReReturn?
The blobs made a reappearance with an update to the Emoji Kitchen in June, but we’re happy to see them as the default in Noto.
Users may modify the weight, size, and even color of emojis using the new emoji font. If you want a dash of monochrome with your emoji, Noto Emoji is now available to download.