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World Smile Day: How the 'smiley face' was created Artist Harvey Ball created the iconic image in the basement of his Worcester, Mass. home in 1963 Now behind this next closed door is, well, wait *** minute, I'm not gonna tell you, I will tell you this no matter where you were born, no matter where you were raised in the world. You know about this. Hello, Harvey. How are you? It's so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And you are famous as the inventor of Smiley, the smiley face. Yes. The smiley face was created down in this Worcester basement. Oh, this is great. Oh, what *** happy place. Look at this. This is the happiest basement I've ever been in Smiley came to life in 1963 when the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America wanted to encourage employees to be happy. Graphic artist, Harvey Ball got the job to create *** smiley face button. There it is. Did you know the minute you done it? This is something special. No, no, I did it and that was it fine. Over time, the company kept ordering more buttons. Thousands and thousands. It wasn't until 1971. All of *** sudden I'm looking around, it's everywhere and the, and you presumably made millions of dollars on this idea. No, I did not. The, uh, state Mutual tried to, uh, well, they checked into it. Did they have any rights? And the answer they got back was no, it's now in the public domain, anybody can use it. So, uh, that was it. I got 45 bucks for the button. The money end of it has never bothered me. I'm very pleased that it's gone everywhere and pleased so many people.
Updated: 11:00 AM EDT Oct 6, 2023 Editorial Standards ⓘ
By Emily Umana
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World Smile Day: How the 'smiley face' was created Artist Harvey Ball created the iconic image in the basement of his Worcester, Mass. home in 1963
Updated: 11:00 AM EDT Oct 6, 2023 Editorial Standards ⓘ
By Emily Umana Back in 1963, Worcester resident and commercial artist Harvey Ball invented the smiley face. In 1999, Ball created World Smile Day to encourage kindness and combat the over-commercialization of the smiley face. The day falls of the first Friday of October. Here's a look back at a 1999 visit to Worcester, with our dear friend Mary Richardson, who brought a smile to everyone's faces. WORCESTER, Mass. — Back in 1963, Worcester resident and commercial artist Harvey Ball invented the smiley face. In 1999, Ball created World Smile Day to encourage kindness and combat the over-commercialization of the smiley face. The day falls of the first Friday of October. Here's a look back at a 1999 visit to Worcester, with our dear friend Mary Richardson, who brought a smile to everyone's faces.
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