hansmoust
Enlightened Member
Hello folks,
Some of you may know that I've been a guitar catalog collector for many years and I still enjoy adding ‘new’ stuff to my collection. Recently I acquired a Guild advertisement that I had not seen before in that particular format.
It may not jump out to you right away, but for some reason I noticed the 'smiley' in the high-e tuner button of the headstock drawing and it made me wonder about how far back the 'smiley' goes. So I did a quick Google search and this is (among other things) what I found:
There are few symbols which so fully represent the American spirit of friendship, happiness and peace as the smiley face. Harvey Ball, co-owner of an advertising and public relations firm in Worcester, Massachusetts designed the Smiley Face in 1964 to help ease the acrimonious aftermath following the merger of two insurance companies.
Then I realized that this Guild advertisement pre-dates the ‘official’ born-on date of the ‘smiley’ by at least a few years! I don’t have an exact date for this ad since it is not dated, but from the info that is on the sheet I was able to date it to the 1960-1961 period.
I can see it is not exactly the ‘smiley’ as we know it today and I guess it is close to what a kid could have drawn at some point, but the way I see it, this little drawing clearly expresses the same emotion of ‘happiness, joy and optimism’ that Harvey Ball was trying to portray when he designed the ‘smiley face' in 1964.
I’m not saying Harvey Ball stole the idea! A lot of great simple ideas often are born at different places, but until somebody comes up with an earlier version of the ‘smiley’ I like to think that the designer who came up with this ad, was the first one to use that idea.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
Some of you may know that I've been a guitar catalog collector for many years and I still enjoy adding ‘new’ stuff to my collection. Recently I acquired a Guild advertisement that I had not seen before in that particular format.
It may not jump out to you right away, but for some reason I noticed the 'smiley' in the high-e tuner button of the headstock drawing and it made me wonder about how far back the 'smiley' goes. So I did a quick Google search and this is (among other things) what I found:
There are few symbols which so fully represent the American spirit of friendship, happiness and peace as the smiley face. Harvey Ball, co-owner of an advertising and public relations firm in Worcester, Massachusetts designed the Smiley Face in 1964 to help ease the acrimonious aftermath following the merger of two insurance companies.
Then I realized that this Guild advertisement pre-dates the ‘official’ born-on date of the ‘smiley’ by at least a few years! I don’t have an exact date for this ad since it is not dated, but from the info that is on the sheet I was able to date it to the 1960-1961 period.
I can see it is not exactly the ‘smiley’ as we know it today and I guess it is close to what a kid could have drawn at some point, but the way I see it, this little drawing clearly expresses the same emotion of ‘happiness, joy and optimism’ that Harvey Ball was trying to portray when he designed the ‘smiley face' in 1964.
I’m not saying Harvey Ball stole the idea! A lot of great simple ideas often are born at different places, but until somebody comes up with an earlier version of the ‘smiley’ I like to think that the designer who came up with this ad, was the first one to use that idea.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
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