Whether it’s living vicariously through Normal People or counting down the days until a physical reunion, COVID-19 has forced us into a no-touch climate and we’re mourning the lack of skin-to-skin contact. Canvas8 spoke to three experts to explore what a post-touch world could look like.

If GIFs are the language of the 21st century, then Giphy is the Académie Française. Its success has been driven by users’ need to communicate clearly and quickly with each other online, and a development schedule that has championed promoting the medium across various social platforms.

Unicode’s 2021 update features 217 new emojis, adding everything from racially-inclusive emoji couples to a floating head in the clouds. As social distancing puts even more weight on technologically-mediated communication, younger generations want more nuanced visual tools at their disposal.

Emojis have become ubiquitous in digital communications, but their use in marketing campaigns hasn’t always been successful. Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Sara Kim, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, to learn how people interpret and react to brands that use these symbols.