"The emojis used especially by young people have revolutionised communications in the same way as the invention of the text message. Emojis are used to communicate visually rather than verbally, and that suits Finns," says Petra Theman, Director of Public Diplomacy at the Ministry in a press release on Wednesday.
The collection of 30 emojis can be downloaded from app stores at no cost on December 1, which is the day that the Ministry's virtual Christmas calendar is launched. It has 24 hatches, each containing an emoji illustrating an emotion related to Finland.
The calender will be available in 13 different languages.
"The Finland emojis were designed with a tongue-in-cheek approach, but I hope that they will tell the world not only about our special features but also something about our strengths. One example is disarming honesty,” says Theman.
Emojis, such as smileys, originate from Japan, but have become part of everyday communications around the world.
The emojis were designed by Bruno Leo Ribeiro of the marketing communications agency hasan&partners together with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
