harvey ball, an ad man in worcester, massachusetts, drew the smiley face in december 1963, for an insurance company whose staff were unhappy after a merger. joy young, who ran its campaign, said she took her idea of a smile button to him, and that together they came up with the design. he drew a smile in a circle; upside down, he said, it became a frown, so he added two eyes. as he explained it: i had a choice. ...do i use a compass to draw the smile and two perfect dots for the eyes? ...nah, do it freely. give it some character.
he said it made him about $45. the worcester historical museum: his $240 fee for the entire campaign included $45 for creation of the button.
by 1971, he said, all of a sudden, bingo, these things were everywhere.
his patent attorneys told him: tough luck. it’s too late. it’s in the public domain.
it never bothered me,
he said.
but in october 1971 a frenchman, franklin loufrani, registered a smiling face as his trademark in france: when it comes to commercial use, registration is what counts.
by his own account, companies around the world paid him to put it on everything from lighters to boxer shorts. ball called him a creep
. i’d like the money,
he said. but i want the credit, too.
the museum in worcester shows how to tell his face from the others: small oval eyes, right larger than left.
on one of the insurance companies’ own buttons, the eye on the right is the larger one; the page measures yours the same way, by the box each eye fills. he died in worcester in 2001. he said: i made the world smile.
