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Speaker 1: Or La Latino Usa listener, como tuta was ailez baounchow

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Speaker 1: the Los archives from Futro Media and PRX It's Latino Usa.

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Joosa Today. Ahila Guzman explains her experience co

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Speaker 1: designing the first Apple emojis, her inspirations, and her process.

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Speaker 1: Instead of sending a text message to express how you feel,

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Speaker 1: you might instead decide to hit one of those cute

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Speaker 1: little icons on your phone, and depending on your mood,

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Speaker 1: you could choose from all kinds of emojis. A suspicious

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Speaker 1: smiley face with a monocle, a hand getting a manicure,

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Speaker 1: or a solo red boxing glove one of my favorites.

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Speaker 1: But did you know that the first set of emojis

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Speaker 1: for Apple products were drafted by a Colombian American woman.

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Speaker 1: Ahila Guzman started as an Internet Apple in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eight while she was still in college, and her

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Speaker 1: first project was to develop emojis from their original Japanese

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Speaker 1: versions into something new. Now, over ten years later, those

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Speaker 1: little images have become well, for lack of a better word, iconic.

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Speaker 1: Here's Ahila telling her story.

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Speaker 2: When I moved from Bogotad to Miami, I did not

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Speaker 2: speak a word of English. I remember entering my classroom

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Speaker 2: full of kids and not being able to connect with anyone.

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Speaker 2: It was very frustrating. So what I ended up doing

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Speaker 2: was actually relying on my drawing skills that I developed

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Speaker 2: before moving and kind of communicating with my teachers and

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Speaker 2: my classmates through pictures. And I noticed immediately the power

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Speaker 2: that an image can have on someone even though you

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Speaker 2: don't speak the same language. I've always relied in that

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Speaker 2: feeling and that of trying to communicate with people in

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Speaker 2: a really natural and simple way, and so designed to

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Speaker 2: me was the perfect outlet and avenue to continue pursuing

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Speaker 2: that goal. And that's how I sort of ended up

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Speaker 2: basically doing my first project. At the time, the word

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Speaker 2: emoji was not super known. It's a Japanese term, and

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Speaker 2: so I actually didn't know what the word meant, and

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Speaker 2: I asked. Pretty soon someone kind of chuckled in the

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Speaker 2: background and said, oh, it's a bunch of icons illustrations

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Speaker 2: that express a feeling and emotion, and so I said, oh, okay,

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Speaker 2: so I'm going to be drawing a lot and how

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Speaker 2: many are there? And they said, oh, probably around close

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Speaker 2: to five hundred, and I said, Oh, okay, I guess

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Speaker 2: I really got to put my drawing cap on and

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Speaker 2: start this project. So when I first started, I wanted

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Speaker 2: to pick an emoji that I sort of felt comfortable

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Speaker 2: but also challenge at the same time. And that's why

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Speaker 2: I started with the engagement ring. Because in my undergraduate

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Speaker 2: class I studied industrial design and I kind of learned

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Speaker 2: how to render metals, but the piece that I thought

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Speaker 2: was really challenging was the diamond. And so my mentor, Raymond,

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Speaker 2: really helped me to understand the technical skills that went

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Speaker 2: behind them, as well as how to apply the apple

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Speaker 2: esthetic onto these icons these emojis. Back then, as an interron,

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Speaker 2: when I started to create an emoji, I was inspired

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Speaker 2: heavily by real life objects, and so I would find

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Speaker 2: myself going to the grocery store to look at apples

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Speaker 2: or strawberries and sort of borrowing details from that, also

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Speaker 2: looking at textures like leather for a football, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: And I think we Raymond and I definitely left our

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Speaker 2: little personality. For example, when he made the happy poop swirl,

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Speaker 2: and pretty soon he created the ice cream cone and

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Speaker 2: sort of swapped the swirl of the happy poop into

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Speaker 2: the cone removed, the eyes, changed the color, and that

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Speaker 2: was basically it, and so lots of giggles, lots of laughter.

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Speaker 2: The turquoise dress, I really was inspired by a real

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Speaker 2: dress that my sister had been creating for an event,

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Speaker 2: and I figured, oh, you know, this is kind of

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Speaker 2: an unusual color combo. It's kind of iconic in my head,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to base it off of that silhouette and

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Speaker 2: that color pattern. And so just recently she found out

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Speaker 2: that was the keys, and she also had a blast

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Speaker 2: and can't stop texting it now. We were assigned obviously

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Speaker 2: a large batch of emoji, and as this was my

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Speaker 2: first time ever creating something like this, the beginning was

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Speaker 2: a little slow. I would make like one every two days,

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Speaker 2: and the first one took me about three days, but

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Speaker 2: very quickly I got faster and faster, and so I

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Speaker 2: ended up making three or four a day, and especially

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Speaker 2: the ones that were simple, like the set of hearts.

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Speaker 2: Once you created the first one, it's easy to swap

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Speaker 2: the color, so then you create you know, five or

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Speaker 2: six really quick. This has been about ten years, but

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Speaker 2: if my memory serves me right, I created about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and eighty through my internship, and several others once

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Speaker 2: I became a full time employee a year later. But

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Speaker 2: some of my favorites that I've created in that time

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Speaker 2: were like the party popper, that cone with the confetti,

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Speaker 2: the set of hearts, the engagement ring just because it

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Speaker 2: has a different memory to me because it was the

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Speaker 2: first one, the Christmas tree, the pumpkin, the stars. I

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Speaker 2: really did not imagine where they would end up and

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Speaker 2: how much they would sort of become part of our

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Speaker 2: everyday environment, not just the digital world, but also in

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Speaker 2: the physical world through toys and other merchandise and decorations

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Speaker 2: that you see. I think folks are drawn to emoji

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Speaker 2: for a variety of reasons, but in my opinion, I

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Speaker 2: think the biggest reason is that one, it's very fast,

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Speaker 2: ideally to find what you're looking for and send it

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Speaker 2: to somebody. But I think the most important reason is

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Speaker 2: it allows you to share sentiment to anyone, regardless of

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Speaker 2: the language they may speak. But yeah, I think mostly

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Speaker 2: for me, it's the universality where you can share them

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Speaker 2: with anybody around the globe and still be understood. I

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Speaker 2: think that's really powerful. When I was very young, when

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Speaker 2: I moved to Florida at the age of eight, and

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Speaker 2: I couldn't be understood, and I drew and I was understood,

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Speaker 2: and I made a bunch of friends in the process.

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Speaker 2: I really think that the emoje you sort of capture

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Speaker 2: that sentiment. You can compose entire sentences in some ways

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Speaker 2: with visuals and people will understand and you can connect.

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Speaker 1: That was Angila Gusmann. This episode was produced by Seer Quevedo.

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Speaker 1: It was mixed by Stephanie Lebou. The Latino USA team

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Speaker 1: includes Victoria Estrada, Jessica Ellis Rinaldo, Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Gruzado,

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Speaker 1: Lori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Nor Saudi and

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Speaker 1: Nancy Trujillo. Benillei Ramirez is our co executive producer. Our

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Speaker 1: senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

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Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Zan Rubino. I'm your

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Speaker 1: host and executive producer Maria Jojosa. Remember join us on

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Speaker 1: our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on

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Speaker 1: all of your social media. I'll see you on Ninstegram, Yes, Rosina, Yes.

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,

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Speaker 3: working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide.

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Speaker 3: The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funding for

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is Coverage of a culture of health is

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Speaker 3: made possible, in part by a grant from the Robert

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Speaker 3: Wood Johnson Foundation