Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984) is an emoji historian, founder of

Emojipedia Emojipedia is an emoji reference website which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters in the Unicode Standard. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia or emoji dictionary, Emojipedia also publishes articles and provi ...

, creator of

World Emoji Day World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji. ...

and widely regarded as an expert on emoji. Business Insider listed Burge in the ''UK Tech 100'' in 2016, 2017 and 2018 referring to him as "The Emoji Maestro" while other publications have used terms such as "Emoji King" or "Lord of Emojis". ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' dubbed Burge "The

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

of Emoji" in 2020.

Emojipedia

In July 2013, Burge started the emoji reference site

, after wondering how long the doughnut emoji had been in existence, and not being able to find an answer on

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

. ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' reported the site had 23 million page views per month in 2017. Burge was ''Chief Emoji Officer'' at Emojipedia between 2016 and 2022, overseeing all editorial content on the site. During his time at Emojipedia, Burge worked with professional

sportspeople An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-develo ...

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

and

Sasha DiGiulian Sasha DiGiulian (born October 23, 1992) is a professional rock climber. She won the gold medal at the 2011 International Federation of Sport Climbing World Championships in Arco, Italy, for Female Overall, placed Silver in Bouldering and Bronze ...

to improve the accuracy of Emojipedia's sample images for the skateboard and rock climber respectively. Jenken Magazine reported: "While they were on the phone one day, Hawk sent Burge a picture of his own board" which was used as the basis of Emojipedia's revised skateboard design. In 2021, Emojipedia served over 500 million annual page views. Emojipedia was acquired by

Zedge Zedge is a content distribution platform. Its content platform enables consumers to personalize their mobile devices with ringtones, wallpapers, home screen app icons, widgets and notification sounds. Amateur and professional artists can launc ...

in August 2021 for an undisclosed amount.

Unicode

Currently representing Emojipedia on the

Unicode Technical Committee The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intent ...

, Burge previously held a position as vice-chair of the

Unicode Emoji Subcommittee The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California, Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was d ...

from 2017 to 2019. Described as a leading authority on emoji use, Burge urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon in 2016, citing cross-platform confusion. Emoji flags for England󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, Scotland󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and Wales were added to the Unicode Standard in 2017 after a formal proposal co-authored by Burge was approved. Rather than individual code points, they are represented by tag sequences. Speaking to Crikey in 2022, Burge spoke against superfluous emoji additions: “representation is important but I’m not sure we need another abacus or lab coat emoji”.

Writing

Burge has been a regular news contributor to Emojipedia and responsible for many of the initial emoji definitions on the reference website. Additionally he has written for publications such Six Colors,

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

, and The Internet Review. In 2019 Burge raised the issue of Facebook using user-submitted phone numbers for undocumented purposes, and in 2020 identified TikTok accessing user clipboard data on every keystroke.

Podcasting

Burge hosted Emoji Wrap, a podcast from Emojipedia covering "global emoji news and trends" between August 2016 and December 2020 interviewing guests including

Mark Davis Mark Davis may refer to: Entertainers *Mark Davis (talk show host), American radio talk show host * Mark Jonathan Davis (born 1965), American actor/singer and creator of Richard Cheese *Mark Davis, American bassist and founding member for the band ...

Myke Hurley Myke Hurley (born 1988) is a British professional podcaster residing in London. He is the co-founder of the podcast network Relay FM. Career In 2011 Hurley formed the podcasting network 70Decibels, which was purchased by the 5by5 network in Mar ...

, Jason Snell and Christina Warren.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

notes that Google product manager Agustin Fonts was "hesitant about shifting to a water pistol" when discussing the Android gun emoji with Burge on the Emoji Wrap podcast.

Public Speaking

The

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

reported that Burge "lectured on the history and social impact of emojis" at TEDxEastEnd at London's

Hackney Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in L ...

in 2017. In addition, Burge has spoken at conferences such as ''The Next Web'' in Amsterdam, ''Smart Future'' in Riga, ''Design Matters'' in Copenhagen and ''Úll'' in Killarney. Institutions that have hosted Burge include

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

Eye Magazine ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited ...

, London Design Museum,

The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

World Emoji Day

is a "global celebration of emoji" created by Burge in 2014. According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', he created the day on "July 17 based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones". Burge told

Axios Axios commonly refers to: * Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia * ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website Axios may also refer to: Brands and enterprises * Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...

in 2017 that "

Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Cook previously served as the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs ...

tweeted about orld Emoji Daythis year so I was kind of excited about that". In 2017 Burge discussed the origin of World Emoji Day and

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

BUILD, attended the lighting of the Empire State Building "emoji yellow" with ''

The Emoji Movie ''The Emoji Movie'' is a 2017 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Tony Leondis, who wrote the script with Eri ...

'' voice cast

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actor ...

Maya Rudolph Maya Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. In 2000, she became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''), and later played supporting roles in the films '' 50 First Dates'' ...

and Jake T. Austin, and announced the winners of the annual World Emoji Awards from the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...

hosted a "Saks Celebrates World Emoji Day" red carpet event in 2017 which was attended by Burge. On

2019, Burge attended the launch of an exhibition at the

National Museum of Cinema The National Museum of Cinema (''Museo Nazionale del Cinema'') located in Turin, Italy, is a motion picture museum fitted out inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. It is operated by the ''Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation'', and the core of its collect ...

and spoke alongside Unicode Consortium co-founder

. Burge claimed to “relax and enjoy it orld Emoji Dayat least once” in 2022, after stepping down from Emojipedia.

Personal life

Burge was born in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and educated at

Assumption College, Kilmore Assumption College (often known as ACK, where the K stands for Kilmore) is an Australian Catholic co-educational secondary day and boarding school. The school is located in the town of Kilmore, Victoria. The College was founded in 1893 by the ...

before graduating from

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

. In the spring of 2019 Burge moved onto a 53 ft narrowboat named Dottie M and gained popularity on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

with viral clips navigating rivers and

canals of the United Kingdom The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's ro ...

References

External links

Jeremy Burge's personal page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burge, Jeremy 1984 births Living people Australian bloggers Australian podcasters People involved with Unicode