Hi Erik,

The desired appearance can be achieved by using templates. You can use the itemTemplate, selectedTemplate and hoveredTemplate and customize the appearance of the rating values.

You could read more about the templates in the Rating component in the article and Demo linked below:

- https://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/controls/editors/rating/templates

- https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/rating/templates

For convenience, I have prepared a small Dojo example where an image is used for each item in the Rating using the itemTemplate. The same approach can be used and the loaded images to display emoticons. 

I remain at your disposal in case of additional questions.

Regards,
Neli
Progress Telerik