How an emoji goes from pitch to product

At a glance, emoji are simple. Each icon visually represents something instantly recognizable — food, a happy face, a high-five. The creation of an emoji is hardly so straightforward. Each icon requires a carefully researched proposal, review by a subcommittee, refinement, approval, and, most importantly, someone willing to champion the emoji through the process.Paul Hunt is a type designer at Adobe who helped bring the orange heart and more gender-inclusive emoji to Unicode 10, the upcomi