Shigetaka Kurita

Shigetaka Kurita is a Japanese designer best known for creating the first emoji set in 1999. Working at the mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, he designed 176 simple, colorful icons to help communicate emotions and ideas more effectively via limited text messages. His innovative work laid the foundation for the global emoji culture that enhances digital communication, making it more expressive and nuanced. Kurita’s designs emphasized clarity and universality, enabling people from different backgrounds to easily understand and share emotions in electronic conversations.