Who invented the smiley face, that obnoxious little design you see plastered on stickers everywhere? Some anonymous hero lost in the quagmire of Commercial Art History? A team of dedicated iconographers hoping to devise the perfect expression of mindless optimism? Will we ever know? Hey, this is what we pay you big money for. –Ivan Brunetti, Lansing, Illinois
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Hmm, your check must have gotten lost in the mail. A few weeks ago, my usual sources having come up dry, I convinced a reporter to post this question in USA Today. Overcome by wickedness, however, I phrased it, “Who invented the smiley face, and did he do time for it?” Not that I actually thought the responsible party should be imprisoned, of course; I’d settle for 20 years’ house arrest in a room wallpapered with smileys. Be that as it may, I got a few calls, made a few more, and now can confidently assign credit and/or blame.
But who invented the original smiley face? The best bet is that the smiley Bernard and Murray had seen floating around was created circa December 1963 for a subsidiary of the State Mutual insurance company by Harvey Ball, a graphic artist in Worcester, Massachusetts. Harvey got the assignment from the company’s promotions director, Joy Young, who wanted a smile button for a morale-boosting campaign ordered up by her boss. Harvey, not a man to waste ink, initially drew just the smile. Pondering the result, he realized that if you turned the button upside down, it became … a frown! To head incipient wise-arsedness off at the pass, he added two eyes, which you could also turn upside down, but then it meant … I’m standing on my head!–a more ambiguous sociopolitical message. He made the thing yellow to give it a sunshiny look, and State Mutual, whom nobody would accuse of rashness, printed up 100. The buttons were a big hit, the company began handing them out by the thousands, and the rest you know. Mr. Ball’s total take: his $45 art fee. State Mutual, not very quick on the uptake, didn’t make anything.
