diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 54d79259b3007725accf690c3e2d7e3b0c8d2d89..0997c15cfdce6349ce2a2218be446aefae7a6784 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Please view this file on the master branch, on stable branches it's out of date.
 
 v 8.7.0 (unreleased)
+  - Load award emoji images separately unless opening the full picker. Saves several hundred KBs of data for most pages. (Connor Shea)
   - All images in discussions and wikis now link to their source files !3464 (Connor Shea).
   - Return status code 303 after a branch DELETE operation to avoid project deletion (Stan Hu)
   - Improved Markdown rendering performance !3389 (Yorick Peterse)
diff --git a/app/helpers/issues_helper.rb b/app/helpers/issues_helper.rb
index 24b90fef4fe94169f984f1450e2fa4195ed17121..bcf8639c82960660c13736a43b8727996cdc91a2 100644
--- a/app/helpers/issues_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/issues_helper.rb
@@ -115,17 +115,32 @@ module IssuesHelper
     icon('eye-slash') if issue.confidential?
   end
 
-  def emoji_icon(name, unicode = nil, aliases = [])
+  def emoji_icon(name, unicode = nil, aliases = [], sprite: true)
     unicode ||= Emoji.emoji_filename(name) rescue ""
 
-    content_tag :div, "",
-      class: "icon emoji-icon emoji-#{unicode}",
-      title: name,
-      data: {
-        aliases: aliases.join(' '),
-        emoji: name,
-        unicode_name: unicode
-      }
+    data = {
+      aliases: aliases.join(" "),
+      emoji: name,
+      unicode_name: unicode
+    }
+
+    if sprite
+      # Emoji icons for the emoji menu, these use a spritesheet.
+      content_tag :div, "",
+        class: "icon emoji-icon emoji-#{unicode}",
+        title: name,
+        data: data
+    else 
+      # Emoji icons displayed separately, used for the awards already given
+      # to an issue or merge request.
+      content_tag :img, "",
+        class: "icon emoji",
+        title: name,
+        height: "20px",
+        width: "20px",
+        src: url_to_image("#{unicode}.png"),
+        data: data
+    end
   end
 
   def emoji_author_list(notes, current_user)
diff --git a/app/views/votes/_votes_block.html.haml b/app/views/votes/_votes_block.html.haml
index 8ffcdc4a327e0a1dc5ea9bfdf526e1d9e9ac7e0b..49cfcd53d74b9d9fd2736f02fa3852a287337370 100644
--- a/app/views/votes/_votes_block.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/votes/_votes_block.html.haml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 .awards.votes-block
   - awards_sort(votable.notes.awards.grouped_awards).each do |emoji, notes|
     %button.btn.award-control.js-emoji-btn.has-tooltip{class: (note_active_class(notes, current_user)), title: emoji_author_list(notes, current_user), data: {placement: "top"}}
-      = emoji_icon(emoji)
+      = emoji_icon(emoji, sprite: false)
       %span.award-control-text.js-counter
         = notes.count