Emoji Royale

My winner: Image 4 — "Greetings!" A field where Image 1 is by far the most elegant illustration (genuinely beautiful as a poster), Image 3 is the most maximalist, and Image 2 is the warmest concept — but all three lose the brief at the design level. Image 1 is too static and monochromatic to read as emotion at thumbnail scale. Image 3 is gorgeous but the detail explodes when shrunk; you'd never tell a feathered headdress from a colorful blur. Image 2 is the closest competitor — Pixar-like and warm — but mom-and-daughter is two characters, which violates the one-glyph-one-feeling rule that real emojis live by. Image 4 wins because it's the only one that would actually function as an emoji: single character, single recognizable gesture (the hat tip), single readable emotion (cheerful greeting), high-contrast silhouette, no background clutter. Drop it next to 🤵 and 🎩 in a keyboard and it would belong. The others are illustrations of people; Image 4 is a glyph of a feeling. That's the difference, and that's the brief.