Felicity Palmateer launches Emoji Collection

Sydney, AUSTRALIA: With Australia being the third largest digital advertising market in Asia and having the second largest number of surfers per capita, surfers enjoy some of the highest followers on social media.

Riding that wave is Felicity Palmateer, who has partnered with San Francisco-based instant messaging app, Thumbkandi to become the first ever professional surfer to launch her own collection of emojis.

Born in Western Australia and now living in Sydney, Felicity earned her way onto the women’s international surfing stage, beating five-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore at the 2013 Margaret River Pro, and competing alongside the world’s top surfers on the 2014 ASP World Tour.

Felicity recently unveiled her debut art exhibition, ‘Bombora’ – presenting a unique tribal-like collection of water colour canvas prints, etched surf boards and individually handcrafted ceramics.

Now keen to satisfy her younger demographic of fans, Felicity said she was excited to be able to combine her love for surfing and art to offer something special for her social media fans.
“I’ve been able to combine my love for surfing and art through the creation of my emoji collection,” Felicity said.

“I’ve found that a lot of my social media followers are young people, mostly girls, who are interested in my artwork, so launching this collection of emojis is a really great way to give them the opportunity to own some of my drawings and share them with their friends. It’s also pretty cool that I’m the first ever surfer to have my own emoji collection. It’s not really something I thought I would ever say!” Felicity said.

As an advocate for environmental issues and conservation research, Felicity has also drawn on her passion for conservation as inspiration for the drawings she designed for her emoji collection.
“As someone who’s been lucky enough to travel the world surfing, I’ve experienced first-hand the devastating impact the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife have on the world’s oceans.

“I’m a passionate advocate for marine conservation, and I want to do what I can to give back to the environment that’s offered me so much with both my surfing and inspiration for my art,” she said.

“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to showcase my first ever emoji collection at the first premier Australian event of the year. I hope to kick off 2015 with success both in and out of the water!” Felicity said.

Felicity’s Thumbkandi collection is available for download by Apple and Android users across 156 countries at www.thumbkandi.com/download.

Images courtesy of Henry Swartz