I had drawn one of these years ago as a birthday gift for a friend. The wife wanted one, too. It only took 10 years. Where’s my Ritalin?I love the smiley face. The story I heard is it was designed by Harvey Ball, a free-lance graphic designer for State Mutual Life Assurance Company in 1963, who received $45 for his work.
The symmetry and the simplicity are so elegant, yet it is extremely hard to execute well. Ball designed Smiley with hand tools -- computer graphic design was science fiction -- we hadn't even yet been on the moon! (and walking through the Apollo 11 module at NASM shows just how primitive our "computer systems" were back then).
Compasses, protractors and a French curve were all this guy had. I tried the same and it came out looking kinda lumpy. Of course, Ball used pen and ink; paint is a bit rougher.
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