The Smiley logo turns 50 this year.
"Predating the emoticon by several decades, the yellow Smiley ideogram and its joyfully ubiquitous, graphic positivity span pop culture and advertising, home design and beauty, comic books and streetwear. It’s a universal countercultural icon with a message of hope that inspires and influences across the globe, its design continually reinvented, reimagined and redefined for each generation.
"Trademarked 50 years ago by French journalist Franklin Loufrani, and used as a grinning endorsement of good news stories in the France Soir newspaper, the Smiley quickly became one of most instantly recognisable icons in design.
"It was adopted first by hippies in the 1970s, then US new wave band Talking Heads used the Smiley on the sleeve of its 1977 ‘Psycho Killer’ single. It was later co-opted as the unofficial logo of the UK’s Acid House movement during the 1980s, more recently making cameos in contemporary art by Banksy, Takashi Murakami and James Cauty."
Article: Celebrate 50 Years of Smiley Culture