i-mode Emoji vs Pictogram System
iモード絵文字 / 案内用ピクトグラム
i-mode Emoji comes from Symbol Systems and Pictogram System from Information Design. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
i-mode Emoji
One hundred and seventy six pictographs that tell faces, weather and things apart using only the placement of dots on a twelve by twelve grid. Shigetaka Kurita drew them for NTT DOCOMO's i-mode, and MoMA holds the original set.
Pictogram System
Unified symbol systems that name facilities and actions without language. Tokyo 1964 systematized sport and wayfinding symbols; the AIGA/DOT transportation set became the public-domain world standard.
| i-mode Emoji | Pictogram System | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1998-1999 | 1964– |
| Family | Symbol Systems | Information Design |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Figures fitted to a twelve by twelve grid / Shapes made of mass rather than of line / Set inline at the size of a letter / Faces, weather and symbols at one coarseness | Geometrized human figures / Uniform stroke weight / Consistency as a system / Independence from language |
| Best used for | Designing signs that must read at the size of a letter as one set on a coarse grid · Telling state by a figure instead of a word where only a few dots can be lit | Guiding visitors of many languages through a venue without words · Turning facility or sport categories into marks legible from a distance |
| Type | Built from masses of dots rather than lines, sized to sit inline at the height of the text | Draw every mark on one grid and stroke weight, human proportions shared |
| Composition | The coarse grid fixed first, every figure told apart inside that one cell | Fit all symbols to a square frame with matched margins and optical center |
| Material | Faces, weather and things held at one coarseness, dots reduced to the limit where they still read apart | Single color silhouettes, minimum size and viewing distance decided first |
| Caution | Chasing fine detail inside the grid clogs the dots, and at the size of the text the figure no longer says what it is. | Drawing each mark as a picture lets stroke and proportion drift, the set stops reading as a system, and meanings swap at a distance. |