Elton John Emoji
I had the pleasure of working with Pan Macmillan to create a very special Elton John emoji, as part of a wider campaign to launch his first ever autobiography, entitled 'Me'. The emoji was exclusive to Twitter and was activated as a hashflag alongside 4 related hashtags.
Katie Roden, who commissioned the project, had previously seen my Pop Prints and saw that I had already captured a selection of pop and rock icons in a very basic style, and although I had used the artworks for large art prints, saw the opportunity to utilize the simplicity and shrink it down to en emoji.
During the production process we looked at a variety of Elton John's styles from his expansive and glamorous career. Every hat, hairstyle and pair of glasses was studied and experimented with, our only real rule was to retain the gradient rainbow as seen on the book's cover photo.
The challenge wasn't just to make it recognisable, it was to make it recognisable at 16x16 pixels. Plus of course it had to be liked by not only Elton himself but also his adoring fans. Being a keen Twitter user myself (@benillustrator) it was wonderful to be able to share my own creation in such a unique way on publication day. The emoji went down well with everyone involved and has been much loved across social media.
