The history of the smiley face is not actually that happy
In 1963 freelance artist Harvey Ball was paid $45 to design a smile to be used on buttons and posters to raise employee morale at an insurance company in Worcester, Massachusetts after a series of difficult mergers and acquisitions. He completed the design in 10 minutes.
The smiley face was an instant hit and the State Mutual Life Assurance Company produced thousands of buttons. But neither the company nor Ball trademarked the design.
In 1971, brothers Bernard and Murray Spain who owned two Hallmark card shops in Philadelphia, stumbled across the design in a button shop, saw how popular it was and simply ripped it off. They added the slogan “Have a Happy Day” to it, copyrighted it (knowing full well that Harvey Ball designed it), and produced their own items with the stolen design.
By the end of 1971 they had sold more than 50 million buttons and countless other products.
Off a stolen design.
But the Hallmark thieves weren’t the only ones to build a fortune off the stolen design. Over in France, journalist Franklin Loufrani was the first person to register the mark for commercial use in 1972. He first used it to highlight good news in the newspaper France Soir. But he later trademarked the design in over 100 countries and launched the Smiley Company by selling smiley T-shirt transfers.
Image: Smithsonian Magazine
24 years later, Loufrani’s son took over the business and turned it into one of the top licensing companies in the world. They make hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Off a stolen design.
Even Walmark tried to claim the design and got into a legal battle with the Smiley Company that lasted 10 years, and apparently cost both parties millions.
After symbolising optimism, or perhaps irony, during the Vietnam War, it became the icon of rave culture in the 80s and 90s, and was subsequently reimagined (ironically) by bands such as Talking Heads and Nirvana.
It has appeared widely in art and fashion throughout the years. It is also believed that Ball’s original design inspired early iterations of the emoji.
Images: CJ Hendry, Culture Kings, Nordic Peace, WWD