/ Blog / / Blog /Disappointed to see such an interesting proposal for a project (a beautiful free emoji set) burdened by “design competition” thinking.
This format of exploitative work is all too common.
Plan: Raise $50-100K. Find 4-5 stellar designers. Have each make 15 emoji's in various styles. Pick 1-2 designers that will conform to a winning style for the remaining emojis. RElease theme. Make a distributed font. Mighty will fund $15-25K.
Creating a free and open emoji set will take a lot of work. Multiple designers and firms will surely be interested in a paid, sample project because it could lead to a larger job.
They’ll work harder than the money they’ll get paid for the work, just for the chance to “win.”
Also, $50–100K won’t be nearly enough for this project.
Creating thousands of emoji (even if many are derived from each other) will take a few designers at least a year to finish. This isn’t even enough for just a year of one designer’s time.
What’s worse is that if this kind of project is funded from multiple companies, those companies who contribute funds will have their own expectations for what the set should be, which could potentially lead to a problematic work situation where it becomes led by a committee.
I think most every project I’ve ever worked on works best when there’s a singular vision and a singular decision-maker. It’s going to be tough for any designer to wrangle the expectations of multiple people who are all contributing to paying them.
To do this kind of project well (and it should be done!), it needs:
This can be done. And I hope it is done. And I hope everyone who works on such a project gets paid well for that work.
There is a reason there are so few “complete” emoji fonts. It takes a lot of work and a lot of money.
And another thing: Emoji isn’t a static set. It has changed and evolved over time. Emoji sets aren’t just made, they need to be modified and maintained over time. That means new budgets and more work. It’s not a one time thing. A project like this has to be ongoing.
A project with this scope would also need a project manager, of course. Someone who can devote their time to the team and ultimately, hopefully, communicate with other vendors on the emoji subcommittee at Unicode. Because over time, new emoji will be added and others will change.
A project this vast in scope, for such a little budget, with that much expectation (a free and open emoji set for everyone to use ??) is a tough sell for most designers to take on. And those who would be willing to do it will be exploited because it’s not enough.
If you’re looking for designers, just ask for portfolios. And ask people around you who you trust for recommendations for who to hire.
Don’t pit designers and artists against each other. Even if you pay them all, don’t make it a competition. Don’t make it a contest.
What I worry about most with a project like this is that without acknowledging the true scope, required budget, and team size before the project starts, this project is doomed to learn all of these lessons the hard way. Projects this big need serious planning.
I draw icons for a living. Y’all know that. I can draw a few lovely illustrative icons in just one day. However, that estimate is contingent on there being no modifications needed. That means the client has to be 0% picky and that what is drawn is 100% correct the first time.
I’d be very worried about the scope of this project if it didn’t have a lot of baked-in trust for the designers on that project. Because if it’s expected that a designer creates “options” to choose from in a project this scale, it’ll take a very, very long time.
I know a lot of designers that can make really nice stuff in a short period of time if there isn’t any client feedback. That would be the best way to go about a project like this. Even with a good budget, the client would have to be pretty hands-off for this to be efficient.
Lots of projects figure this out as they go.
The bottom line is that this project would not go well if they figure this stuff out as they go. They need much more than this “plan” to merely raise the money. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the easiest component.
I’m still having trouble accepting that anyone who runs a tech startup could think you could get 3000+ highly illustrative, consistent illustrations for only $100k. I know a lot of them are skin-tone and gender variants, but—
$33 per illustration? That’s a horrible rate.