Meet Mexico City’s New Official Emojis

Residents of Mexico City will soon have a whole new set of emojis to use when talking about their city. As CityLab reports, the winners of the Emoji CDMX competition were announced on August 1, crowning new icons to describe the 21st-century metropolis.

Launched in June 2017 by the municipal government’s experimental Laboratory for the City, the competition asked designers to represent Mexico City in 20 small symbols. Almost 100 designers took part, submitting 2000 emoji designs for consideration. (Technically, the symbols are stickers, not emojis, since you’ll have to download an app to use them, but emoji is a much more recognizable term, so we’ll go with it.)

The winners—Itzel Oropeza Castillo (first place); Eduardo Camacho and Pedro Rodrigo Grajeda (second place); and Ivonne Andrea Torres and Martin Robert Cook (third place)—received cash prizes from The Lift Mexico, one of the competition’s sponsors. Five honorable mentions and several mayor’s favorites selections were also recognized at the August 1 awards ceremony and will be included in the app.

The emoji designs submitted often included some of the same themes and topics, including Frida Kahlo; the Mexican walking fish, ajolote; tamales; the Aztec god Tlaloc; and the landmark Latin American Tower.

While Finland has launched its own official national emoji, Mexico City is the first city to do so, and the first to hold an open competition for the designs. The Emoji CDMX app will be available for iOS and Android in September, with a total of 240 available designs.

[h/t CityLab]