Most custom emote packs I get sent to "fix up" have the same problem: they're pretty, but nobody uses them. After designing a lot of these, here's what separates emotes people spam constantly from ones that just sit in the picker.

1. Legibility at 28px, not 512px.

Your emote will mostly be seen tiny, in a scrolling chat, at a glance. If it only reads as a shape at full size, it's dead on arrival. Bold silhouettes, high contrast, minimal fine detail.

2. One clear emotion or action per emote.

Don't cram "shocked + laughing + pointing" into one emote. Chat needs to react in half a second — give them a single, obvious feeling: hype, cope, cry-laugh, side-eye, etc.

3. Consistent style across the set.

A pack where every emote looks like a different artist drew it feels cheap. Same line weight, same color saturation, same "world" — even if the poses vary a lot.

4. Inside jokes > generic reactions.

Generic "PogChamp"-style emotes are fine, but the ones that actually get spammed are usually tied to something specific to your community — a catchphrase, a recurring bit, a mascot's face. Specificity is what makes people want to use it unprompted.

5. Name them for how people talk, not how they look.

":BlueCatSurprised:" gets used way less than ":shookCat:" or ":no_way:" — name emotes the way your chat would type the reaction, not the way you'd describe the image.

If you're building out a set for your server or channel, happy to answer questions here — this is genuinely just what we've learned building packs for streamers and communities.