We owe so much to this guy!

It's hard to remember life without emoji. It's hard to remember how we illustrated that a sentence was sarcastic, happy or angry without the addition on a symbol at the end. So we never really thought about the fact that emoji are only a thing because of this one, genius man. Shigetaka Kurita created the first set of symbols in 1999 when he was part of a team who designed i-mode, a mobile internet system. ''It limited users to up to 250 characters in an email, so we thought emoji would be a quick and easy way for them to communicate. Plus using only words in such a short message could lead to misunderstandings … It’s difficult to express yourself properly in so few characters.'' Shigetaka told the Guardian. He also said that he never thought the characters would become so popular internationally. ''I’m surprised at how widespread they have become. Then again, they are universal, so they are useful communication tools that transcend language.'' Of all the emoji he designed and created his favourites are still the classics. ''I still have a soft spot for the ones that communicate positive emotions.'' He said. However, if he had to chose just one? ''I would say the heart is my all-time favourite.''