Getting a normal looking unicode down arrow in a UILabel like this ⬇

Displaying some characters as "Emojis" is a feature which is e.g. (controversially) discussed here: https://devforums.apple.com/message/487463#487463 (requires Apple Developer login). This feature was introduced in iOS 6.

A solution (from https://stackoverflow.com/a/13836045/1187415) is to append the Unicode "Variation selector" U+FE0E, e.g.

self.myLabel.text = @"\u2B07\uFE0E";
// or:
self.myLabel.text = @"⬇\uFE0E";

Note that on iOS <= 5.x, the Variation selector is not necessary and must not be used, because iOS 5 would display it as a box.

In Swift it would be

myLabel.text = "⬇\u{FE0E}"

If you're seeing the blue arrow with gloss, you have the right character, but it's showing one of the emoji-style characters. Try changing the font of your UILabel to something like Arial Unicode MS.

Edit After a little testing, it looks like changing the font doesn't actually work. It keeps displaying the glossy arrow. It's probably better to go with the suggestion of the other answer and use a different glyph, like \u2193, which does work:

[nameLabel setText:@"\u2193"];