Emojis for NOLA

Reading recently that Finland will release a set of thirty government-sanctioned emojis over the course of several months, including a naked couple steaming in a sauna and a studded-leather-wearing head banger, a flash of (derivative) inspiration hit: Louisiana’s iconic culture is perfect fodder for emojis!

As one must do these days, I checked to see whether these already existed in the world; lo and behold, I discovered a set of New Orleans-themed emojis that cover a lot of important territory: snoballs, alligators with attitude, go cups, and a crawfish with the words “Oh snap!” written over its head.

The emojis, actually a keyboard app created by three New Orleans creatives, were released in October for iPhones and iPads (sorry Android users, no version for you yet, but they are working on it) and are available for free for a limited time. Available in iTunes, the app is called CityKey-New Orleans, and it installs a special keyboard on your device which allows you to paste the images in text.

Some of the images are surprisingly useful, others—especially the buildings—will have limited relevance to non-New Orleanians. But all in all, definitely worth the download.