That quote on the smiley logo was from an interesting Channel 4 programme with Idris Elba, How Clubbing Changed the World.
In 1963, the State Mutual Life Insurance Company of Worcester Massachusetts used The Smile badge as a part of a promotional campaign (pictured below).
According to Wikipedia, the logo was originally designed by Harvey Ball, but that’s not the only attribution in circulation (read more on The Logo Factor and smiley.com).
“We adopted the logo. It represented what we were about: peace, love, unity, and happiness.”
— Danny Rampling
Those were the days.
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More on how marks like this are made in Logo Design Love, third edition.
Miles Newlyn,
Brings back some memories. =)
Jamie Davis,
I’m loving this. Especially the fact that the smiley logo was used for contrasting purposes.
I remember watching ‘How HipHop Changed the World’ last year, also with Idris Elba presenting. That was also a very cool documentary that really opened my eyes to the influences. I loved it. Plus, Idris is one of my favourite actors.
Meredith,
What would emoticons be without dear ol’ smiley?
meredith,
This has nothing to do with smiley…..just a cool logo video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svOrt6w55P4&feature=related
Will S,
As far as brands go, smiley face reminds me of the old Labatt Blue ads “Blue smiles along with you”. Also the old Blue bottle caps with the smiley face logo or sayings on the caps that mentioned ‘smile’ on them.