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The faces behind Emoticats™

May 27, 2008 on 5:33 pm | In Features | 67 Comments

We told you about the new Emoticats IMVironment a couple of weeks ago. A few of the photos we used for inspiration came from user’s collections on Flickr. Here’s a quick look at those photographers and their furry friends…

“Talk to the Paw”, taken by Robin from Sandy Hook, CT, USA
Petunia, aka “Tunie”, was rescued by Robin along with her mom and two siblings. Tunie likes to do tricks, including sitting on her hind legs and begging for treats. This photo captures one of those moments. To find out more about Robin and her cast of furry characters, visit her blog or her Flickr photostream.

“Sad”, taken by Saleh A., Kuwait
See more of Saleh’s photos on Flickr

“Buh-bye”, taken by David G. from Chelmsford, UK
This photo is of Tilly, who joined David’s household along with her twin sister, Milly. In this shot Tilly is actually trying to catch the autofocus light from David’s camera with her paw, which makes it look like she’s waving. See more of David’s photos on Flickr

“Bad hair day”, taken by Jon H., from Vancouver, WA, USA
This photo is of Jon’s kitten, Sammy, who didn’t consider bath time to be very much fun. “Most of the time she was a good sport, others she griped and moaned and just felt sad and this was one of those times.” Sadly, Sammy died very young of a heart defect but Jon says “we enjoyed every moment [with Sammy] including this one and I have a sneaking suspicion she did too.” See more of Jon’s photos on Flickr

The Emoticats were created from these photos by Joel Yau and Sara Mordecai, two Yahoo! illustrators. Joel tells us “The Emoticats project truly was a team collaboration. I had fun creating these cat faces, expressions and cool markings – all in all a
‘meow’-velous project!”

Thanks to our Flickr users for lending their great feline photos and to Sara and Joel for turning them into Emoticats. To try out the Emoticats IMV, click here (you must be running Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0). Or click the IMV menu in your IM window.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

67 Comments »

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  1. Cute cats. all of them are cute Sarah. I may be a guy but im big about cats. Have you seen the cats in person cause the one in the second photo and third id fall in love with

    Comment by Daniel — May 27, 2008 #

  2. Nice work! I’m a cat lover and I’ve been waiting for such an IMVironment! How about more cat smileys?

    Comment by roxanagrm — May 28, 2008 #

  3. Here kitty kitty kitty.

    Comment by Venom — May 28, 2008 #

  4. Indeed nice job. Keep up the good work.

    Comment by Raavi — May 29, 2008 #

  5. as a cat lover& owner and also a graphic designer i say great work, great cats!

    Comment by marie jeanne — May 29, 2008 #

  6. Very nice work and I really appreciate it.Thank you for sharing your creativity.All the best:)

    Comment by Henryk — May 29, 2008 #

  7. that’s cool
    Mewo!

    Comment by samuel — May 29, 2008 #

  8. Super cute! Great job Joel & Sara!!!

    Comment by sue — May 29, 2008 #

  9. So this is why you cannot get technical assistance from Yahoo when some Chinese hacker hijacks your accounts on yahoo…they are concentrating on the cartoon characters…NICE!

    Comment by idllc — May 31, 2008 #

  10. Nice, girls will love them.

    Comment by Zee — May 31, 2008 #

  11. i have a cute one with my cat stickin his tongue out if yall want to use that

    Comment by mary jane — June 6, 2008 #

  12. that is sooooo cute and it’s cool how each picture was designed into an Emoticat. next time can you make Emotidogs?

    Comment by vina — June 7, 2008 #

  13. I like it i think its really nice

    Comment by Alex — June 14, 2008 #

  14. Meoww. Meoow.
    cute
    I love it.

    Comment by JeehAne — June 20, 2008 #

  15. purrrrfectly wonderful

    Comment by Diana — June 21, 2008 #

  16. i love all the cats!!im actually a dog lover but as i saw this i was “awww they are soo cute!”

    Comment by elLie — June 27, 2008 #

  17. I like that a lot its crazy cool… But dogz would be wayyyy CUTE!!!!!!!!!!! You should try it out and post : )

    Comment by Katie — June 28, 2008 #

  18. i second that motion on the dogs too, would love to see that

    Comment by E-belle — July 11, 2008 #

  19. i so love catss!!! and all of them look really really cute!!!
    more pleaasee…
    :)

    meow!

    Comment by diana — July 12, 2008 #

  20. not loving the smileys the original pics r cute (especially the 4th) but the smileys *blech*

    Comment by danielle — July 16, 2008 #

  21. I hate cats!!

    Comment by luckyhoeisyamama — July 18, 2008 #

  22. Cool things….And it’s good to be a power user

    Comment by Rishun — July 31, 2008 #

  23. These are awesome, I’ve been ready for new stuff & this is a good one.. The Cats are adorable!

    Comment by Deana — July 31, 2008 #

  24. i really like this im soo happy im a power user
    relly cute cats and nice job!!

    Comment by Ashley — August 2, 2008 #

  25. adorable.. my bestfriend’s name is Katz…

    Comment by astro — August 5, 2008 #

  26. I loved them..id have liked to see what my three Angel, Miss Emma and Mickey would look like as a cartoon lol. keep up the great work! cute critters….

    Comment by cindy — August 6, 2008 #

  27. PURRRFECT! I love cats-they’re so cute!! Please make more of these cuties!

    Comment by Nayoung — August 17, 2008 #

  28. I downloaded messenger 9( beta) but it does not show up and how do I add all the good emoticates to my messeger? also tryed to reload download I mean off ie7 never did finish loading waited half the day!!

    Comment by Karen Emery — August 21, 2008 #

  29. Wow. Great Work Man ! PURRRFECT! I

    Comment by Mohammad Reza Ranjkar — September 22, 2008 #

  30. Love the cats! It’s a great new way to IM

    Comment by Keralee — September 26, 2008 #

  31. Wish i can put those emoticats on my status.. that is going to be soooo COOL! Very nice work though..

    Comment by Phi Pham — September 27, 2008 #

  32. Awww should have used pics of my cat, he’s cute too! LOL. Anyway, Love the emoticats, keep the cool stuff coming…and I hope you get one for dogs soon as well!

    Comment by Jessica — October 13, 2008 #

  33. Awesome! I love all of the pics!

    Comment by Chris — October 21, 2008 #

  34. Your Cats are cute..but I need dog illustrations/labs, poodles, yorkies, dalmations, weinerdogs, chihuahuas. etc.

    Comment by cory — October 21, 2008 #

  35. here kitty kitty kitty ur cute
    awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

    Comment by taylorneelbrown@yahoo.com — October 23, 2008 #

  36. So when are those out and how do i get them?? and i can’t forget the awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

    Comment by Sara — October 27, 2008 #

  37. shooooo swwweeet!!
    Really cute emoticats there sarah!

    Comment by Nitish — October 29, 2008 #

  38. how do we get them????????? they r sweet!!!!

    Comment by kim — November 3, 2008 #

  39. They are so cool, especially since I’m a cat-lover. Great job guys!

    Comment by Asilee — November 11, 2008 #

  40. :D i tried the IMV last night, and it was hilarious! Loved it!

    gj, guys..

    Comment by kikit — November 18, 2008 #

  41. great emoticons..i like the sad one..raelly cute..!!

    Comment by Mihir — December 1, 2008 #

  42. Awesome kitties! =) I love cats!

    Comment by Shayla Evilsizer — December 1, 2008 #

  43. Fantastic!!! Something New!!!! Can we say meow….

    Comment by Nica~ — December 9, 2008 #

  44. nice… i love pets…

    Comment by cee — January 3, 2009 #

  45. mew the cat :X

    Comment by veve — January 15, 2009 #

  46. How adorable!

    Comment by Jesseh — January 19, 2009 #

  47. cool catz

    Comment by aaron — February 2, 2009 #

  48. Ringraziamenti molto! Lo avete aiutato molto!

    Comment by gnocca — February 4, 2009 #

  49. pretty cool…but dogs would have been much better! lol

    Comment by andrei — February 17, 2009 #

  50. Huh, a new feature from yahoo. great job !

    Comment by derex — March 14, 2009 #

  51. Love them!

    Comment by Kira — March 15, 2009 #

  52. wow they look cute,love those cats! :-)

    Comment by roy — March 30, 2009 #

  53. aww xD i love cats i have 4 mew mew meeeeow mew

    Comment by Tisha — April 20, 2009 #

  54. are so fluffy !!! o:-)

    Comment by unspecified — April 25, 2009 #

  55. I love the cats and it’s a fun way to chat with my little nieces and nephews, they can’t read but they love the cats.
    We’d love it if you could make even more of them.

    Comment by Polkastria — April 26, 2009 #

  56. ohhh so cute :X:X:X:D

    Comment by Edy — April 27, 2009 #

  57. sweet cat, I love dogs.

    Comment by Alexander — May 6, 2009 #

  58. my favorite, I love them

    Comment by Karen — May 16, 2009 #

  59. They’re…. Nice

    Comment by Galvin — June 6, 2009 #

  60. Very good. Also looking forward to the cute animation and sounds.

    Comment by Veronica — June 18, 2009 #

  61. Wow…soooo cuuteee….

    Comment by TuanAdi — July 14, 2009 #

  62. Cool & Cute..Cats

    Comment by pradeep — August 5, 2009 #

  63. when can we expect the EMOTIDOGS…arf,arf !!!

    Comment by melekan — August 12, 2009 #

  64. Really nice Cats I love this

    Comment by Haryanwi — October 7, 2009 #

  65. i love it, i love it, i love it….
    miaauuwww…

    Comment by Irma — October 7, 2009 #

  66. what a cute kitty

    Comment by spikecursed — October 13, 2009 #

  67. really cute…! love them..!

    Comment by June — October 22, 2009 #

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