This was one of our first projects for teens, developed at our studio, employing a visual language to communicate with its students, follow up on meetings via WhatsApp or Facebook messages, and deliver little smiles. The premise was that an image says more than a thousand words. In collaboration with the EF team, we designed several icons/emojis and a keyboard extension to help EF officers engage with a young audience. With over 100 emojis dedicated to destinations, seasons, and practical aspects of travel, teens could share their experiences abroad with family and friends using travel-themed emojis and never get lost in translation.

The visual style of the app was fresh and new, appealing to the target group of international students aged 14-19 who were themselves obsessed with being cool and always the first to use new and exciting emoticons.

We’ve designed several emojis as characters themselves rather than just icons and each iteration should communicate a specific mood or personality. Just like a happy, sad, surprised umbrella, or boots, or taxi having as a reference Aladdin’s carpet (Disney):

Boots are giving off an emotion in addition to just saying ‘boots’:

Travelmoji was available for download on both iOS and Android, optimized for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, Google+, Hangout, Viber, WeChat, KakaoTalk, and email.

After Travelmoji app version 1.0 became a big success within the Education First community, a “free emoji keyboard for world travellers” continued as an expansion of the already existing app.