Who designed the 176 emoji in the original 1999 set for NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service?

Shigetaka Kurita designed the 176 emoji in the original 1999 set for NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service.

Kurita worked on the early Japanese mobile internet platform i-mode, launched by NTT DoCoMo. He created a compact set of 12-by-12-pixel symbols to help people communicate emotion and context within the severe display and data limits of early mobile phones.

The set included familiar ideas such as weather, transportation, food, and facial expressions. Its small scale encouraged simple, recognizable designs rather than detailed illustrations. The original images are often described as an important foundation for modern emoji.

Kurita did not single-handedly create every later emoji used worldwide. Other Japanese carriers developed their own collections, and emoji became globally interoperable only after Unicode encoded them. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the original designs in 2016, recognizing their cultural and design significance.