Edinburgh phrases and places captured in app

App developer Fanmoji worked with Edinburgh based designer Emily Fraser to create the Edinmoji emoticons.

Now less novelty and more norm, the use of pictograms or “emojis” to communicate ideas and share emotions is more popular than ever.

And for a city which is a year-round mecca for global visitors, an app developer has created a fun way to visually communicate the brilliance of Edinburgh.

The creation of “Edinmoji” by developers Fanmoji will allow locals and visitors alike to embrace the growing visual communication fad – but with a distinctly Edinburgh flavour.

Fanmoji founder Tim Webber said: “The purpose is to give people a cool, highly visual way to communicate. Something’s that not only fun, but also creates a sense of pride, and is pretty useful.

“We released an app for Scotland and the reception was great. To really celebrate the individual characters of the biggest cities, we needed to produce emoji-stickers covering a whole range of categories from landmarks, to sport to phrases and people.”

Glasmoji, for Glasgow, will be launched simultaneously.

Tim said: “We signed up local illustrators so we could really achieve that authentic voice and make the apps resonate with residents.”

The range of 75 designs represent specific locations throughout the Capital such as Leith, Portobello and Gorgie as well as the football clubs, tourist hotspots and well-used local phrases such as braw and baltic.

Designer Emily Fraser, pictured below left, said it had been a great project to celebrate the city. “As I design the stickers I can picture myself using them with my friends,” she said. “There are phrases and areas, such as Gorgie, that will be mostly only relevant to the people of the city and I think they will love them.”

John Donnelly, chief executive at Marketing Edinburgh, said: “The new Edinmojis are a fun and light hearted-way for both locals and visitors to engage digitally with the city, as they share thoughts, pictures and videos, capturing their favourite Edinburgh sites, songs, faces and events.

“With 38 per cent of Edinburgh’s visitors coming from overseas, the pan-world language of emojis makes them accessible to everyone and will likely be a popular hit with our younger tourists.”

A spokesman for Essential Edinburgh cited the increasingly important role of apps in daily life He said: “The power of mobile computing is only set to increase. But the use of smart phones and social media is also very much about fun, and a sense of identity, and in that regard the new Fanmoji app will certainly add to the digital landscape.”

And the developers are keen that the people of Edinburgh contribute. “We’ve got 95 per cent of the emoji-stickers ready,” said Tim. “But now we want locals to have the final say.”

To vote for the final few locations, phrases and people visit www.fanmoji.co.uk.

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