The History Of Smileys And Origination

Oct 30
13:33

2010

Craig Thornburrow

Craig Thornburrow

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

The history of smiley’s can show you where smiley’s got their start. When you understand how the smiley was developed you may have a better understanding and appreciation for the smiley’s that you choose to use each day.

mediaimage

The history of smiley’s can show you where smiley’s got their start. Smiley’s are something that are used almost daily by many people without a thought of their origination. When you understand how the smiley was developed you may have a better understanding and appreciation for the smiley’s that you choose to use each day.

The exact source of the Smiley is disputed,The History Of Smileys And Origination Articles but it appears that a self employed animator from Massachusetts was the creator of the first smiley. This animator was Harvey Ball and he was approached by a company named the State Mutual Life Assurance Corporation to come up with a design for a campaign they were having for friendship. This promoted employees to smile when handling customers and this can free up the stress that comes with this type of business.

The original smiley was used in this design by Ball and it was a circle with a yellow background. Ball created this design in a manner of minutes and he was paid less then $50 for his design. The original smiley was not copyrighted and this made it free to be used by anyone for any purpose.

A kids show also used the smiley and it was their logo for a show called the Funny Company.

Ball said he created the first design in a few minutes and was paid $45 for it. However, neither Ball nor State Mutual Life copyrighted the icon, making the Smiley free to use by anyone.

The smiley also became a fashion statement in the 70’s and there were two brothers in Philly that made novelties made out of the smiley and this made them very successful in a very short time frame.

Several people have tried to copyright the smiley logo over the years and Frank Lourfrani was given this copyright in the 70’s and he came up with Smiley World that was based on good things and combating negative.

At one time even Wal-Mart wanted to copyright the smiley but they were eventually denied in the copyright process.

The smiley is something that will continue to be updated with the times and it will be fun to see what they will do with the smiley next. If you use smiley’s often you may have found that there are many versions to choose from and not only do they represent a good mood but you can also communicate any other emotion that you may be feeling and this makes the smiley appeasable to everyone.