How We Use Custom Slack Emojis to Fuel Camaraderie

Since we started using Slack, we’ve been obsessed with creating custom emojis. This isn’t just for the fun of it (although it is a lot of fun)—we use custom emojis as a way to build a stronger company culture. One of the best ways to create a sense of community is to uplift people and the amazing work they’re doing. A little appreciation goes a long way, especially in a hybrid work environment, where we’re not always saying thanks face-to-face. To give you an idea of how we show appreciation through custom emojis, here’s a sampling of our favorites:

Our People—What better way to celebrate our people than by emojifying them? We have a channel called #appreciation-station where people send notes of gratitude to their co-workers, and naturally, we all react with that person’s custom emoji.

Our clients—Using client emojis allows us to lift up the work that teams are creating for those clients, and helps to keep the entire agency in the loop of the status of different projects.

Our best jokes—Sometimes the regular emojis just don’t cut it when it comes to keeping a joke going (arguably too long) or expressing a hyper-specific emotion. For instance, we present to you cowboy-cool-cry-mild-panic:

The unexplainable

How You Can Make Your Own

Step 1: Create the file
We use Photoshop, but Illustrator or even Canva can work! You can also find extra emojis others have created online, or on websites like Slackmojis. When creating your static image or GIF, Slack says the best size is 128px by 128px, and a file size of 128 KB or less. Export and save, and then head over to Slack.

Step 2: Open your Slack workspace

Go to one of your message threads, click in as if you’re going to use an existing emoji.

Step 3: Click the ‘Add Emoji’ button in the bottom left corner.

Step 4: Drag and drop your static or GIF file and name your emoji. All emojis have to have a different name so they are searchable in your workspace, so make it fun but easy to remember! 

Step 5: Use to your heart’s content!!