Coronavirus-related emojis by &Walsh offer "comic relief" during pandemic

Jessica Walsh's creative agency &Walsh has designed emojis that detail life during the coronavirus pandemic, including hand sanitiser, a tin of beans and healthcare workers dressed as superheroes.

The New York designer, who left Sagmeister & Walsh last year to create her own agency &Walsh, has made hundreds of emojis and sticker designs with her team to relate to the current climate caused by the crisis.

The graphics reference aspects like working from home, being tight on cash and general feelings of stress, confusion or burnt out. Emojis include a handpump of Purell hand sanitiser, a surgical mask and a measure marking six feet (1.8 metres) – the recommended distance to keep from others.

&Walsh said it created the emojis to provide a light-hearted relief amid the crisis.

"We're all going through unique and difficult times in 2020 that call for new language," said it said. "We hope these can provide some delight or comic relief to people's day… or just make it a little easier to communicate how shitty you're feeling!"

Playful emojis are a golden roll of toilet paper with stars, a loaf of bread in a pan that says "Breadmaster" and a red sign that says "Sorry life is closed until 2021".

Others are mail delivery people designed as superheroes, as well as doctors and nurses, who are on the front lines during the pandemic.

The collection also includes numerous emojis specific to designers and creatives, such as ones that riff off Adobe's Photoshop and Apple's Finder icons, and cropping and editing tools.

"We have a set that's catered towards graphic designers and another set that is for wider audiences relating to WFH and life in 2020," Walsh added.

General work-related graphics are a calendar emoji that shows Saturday as a day of work and one with the month of April that says "sucks". Other creations reference tight budgets, deadline, payments, and medals for the worst day and year ever.      General work-related graphics are a calendar emoji that shows Saturday as a day of work and one with the month of April that says "sucks". Other creations reference tight budgets, deadline, payments, and medals for the worst day and year ever.     

Walsh has also created emojis of herself and her former colleague Stefan Sagmeister, along with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Pentagram's Paul Scher. In an interview about sexism in the design industry, Walsh said Scher's work was inspirational to her in starting her career.

The creations are designed to be used as WhatsApp stickers, Instagram story stickers via Giphy and iMessage stickers.