Canva Emojis

2024

When our friends at Canva asked us to develop a new set of emojis for their brand glow up, we couldn’t wait to dive in. Canva’s emojis are just like Canva: fun, colorful, and full of personality.

Canva.com ↗

The Canva brand is human-centric and empowering. Their visual identity is known for its playful look, making it the perfect brand to create some stellar new emojis for.

Our task was to create a set of emojis that would encapsulate the core aesthetic of Canva, while still adhering to the familiar look users expect from emojis. They needed to be fresh, fun, and expressive.

Design

The result? A set of dimensional emojis that leverage gradients to create a visually compelling effect, while still maintaining impact and clarity across various scales.

Using the Canva color palette as our base, we experimented with unexpected color combinations like a dash of Canva purple in the heart gradient, or a touch of pink in the fire. We even added a bit of purple in black elements, like eyes and mouths, to give everything that distinct Canva flair.

Animation

Putting the designs in motion allowed us to infuse personality into each emoji. Animation added an extra layer of vivacity — whether through a playful wink or a lively bounce. We created a sense of depth whenever possible through subtle head turns and overlapping elements.

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Special Emojis

The second part of our brief was to create a set of four special emojis (although they’re all special to us) that would fall outside the conventional group of emojis. We were asked to make something a little unexpected, but still expressive. These special emojis needed to have a positive and celebratory vibe, something like the classic high-five.

Although only four special emojis were selected for the final cut, we had a blast exploring all the different possibilities that you see on the left.

Behind the Scenes

During the early stages of the project, we explored a range of different illustration styles that would suit Canva and stand out from the crowd. We also had lots of fun exploring extra poses for the emojis.