You’ve probably seen many smileys in your life, however, the first ever one to be used was designed by Harvey Ball. The unique-looking yellow ball is recognized all over the world, and has helped many people by putting a smile on their face! However, Harvey Ball, the man behind the smiley didn’t become filthy rich even though the smiley was used a lot. Keep on reading to discover more about Harvey Ball and the origin of the iconic smiley face.
The Smiley was designed to make people happy during work
After a merger of two big insurance companies, its workers were not happy on the work floor. However, the company wanted to make sure that the workers would be happy in their jobs again. To boost the morale of the work environment, Harvey Ball was hired. He was a freelance artist responsible for coming up with a smiley design to put on business cards, pins, and other things. He designed it in 1963 and the smiley turned out to be a great success. The buttons were such a big success that more than 50 million were sold in the first 8 years after the smiley was designed.
You’d think that Harvey Ball would have made millions off of this since he was the creator. However, he didn’t trademark the design so the company was able to use it however they pleased. He drew the smiley in less than 10 minutes and made 45$ from it!
Harvey Ball Never Regretted Not Getting It Trademarked
Harvey Ball didn’t trademark the smiley, and during an interview, someone asked about it, but he answered by saying he didn’t regret it. He didn’t have any money-related interests. One of his most humble answers to the question was that he could only eat one steak at a time. Later in his life, he set up the World Smiley Corporation, founded in 1999, which licenses Smileys. However this is not all the corporation does, they are also the organizers of World Smile Day. During this day money gets raised for the Harvey Ball Foundation which supports children’s causes. Unfortunately, Harvey Ball passed away when he was just 73 years old due to liver failure. However, we will always have something to remember him by as the Smiley will live on for quite a while!
