There was a time before Hello Kitty and Emoticons and this is a hommage to Harvey Ball, the creator of the original Smiley, the round yellow face with two dots and a curved line. Ball, owner of a small advertising agency in Worcester, designed this simple icon in 1963 for an isurance company that needed a quirky idea to motivate their staff. Sold for 45 bucks initially it sold over 50 million times on buttons, cups, etc. within the first decade of its existence. The problem : Ball never secured a copyright of his design. The design was later
slightly amended by a French guy, with copyright, and is now licensend to 400 companies in over 100 countries netting the company close to 100 million a year. Such a sad story around such a fun idea. AJ
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