Over the course of half a century, the Smiley Company has influenced various creative industries. Founded by smiley face creator and owner Franklin Loufrani, this forward-looking organisation fiercely protects the Smiley brand, having built an international presence across almost 150 countries.
Since the Smiley Company was founded in 1972, Franklin Loufrani and his son, Nicolas Loufrani, have built a unique new business model based on creative partnerships with retailers and manufacturers.
As detailed on the Smiley Company website, this business model was referenced by author Isabel Wu in her book The Michelangelo Project: Making It in the Digital Century Workforce. Wu suggested that the Smiley Company implemented a real-world example of a business theory put forward by Peter Drucker. A prominent Austrian American educator, author and management consultant, Drucker theorised that corporations could operate with a small team of senior management by forging partnerships and outsourcing a major component when bringing products to market.
Today, the Smiley Company’s commercial strategy, designs, concepts, marketing and images are utilised by other companies in the development and manufacturing of products. Franklin and Nicolas Loufrani are business and culture innovators who have pioneered the marketing of happiness and emotional intelligence, as well as taking bold steps in the realms of digital marketing, digital communication, fashion marketing through music and the licensing of lifestyle intellectual property.
An internationally recognised lifestyle consumer products company, the Smiley Company has received various awards for its innovation and creativity and has been featured in numerous books and articles. The organisation remains fiercely committed to protecting its brands, consumers, licensees and retail partners against counterfeits.
The first Smiley Original Logo trademark was registered in France in 1971. Subsequently, Franklin Loufrani registered the trademark in numerous other countries. Today, the Smiley Company holds a vast portfolio of trademarks, including the Smiley name and the Smiley Original Logo.
From 1997, the Smiley Company started creating variations of the Smiley logo under the guidance of Nicolas Loufrani. These variations were intended for use as gif icons and stickers in the digital world. According to the Smiley Company website, it was the first organisation to transform ASCII emoticons composed of punctuation into a universal language made of colourful graphics. The Smiley Company was also the first to sort these graphics into various categories, such as emotions, characters, celebrations, sport, food and fruits, weather and more to make them easily accessible.
By 2004, the Smiley Company had developed more than 3,000 icons. Over the years, the company’s art direction and style has evolved. SmileyWorld Ltd, a subsidiary of the Smiley Company, owns copyright registrations for tens of thousands of graphics. Collaborating with its partners, the organisation develops and creates somewhere in the region of 15,000 new products each year, orchestrating hundreds of marketing campaigns. SmileyWorld Ltd utilises copyrighted logos, creative graphics and registered trademarks designed by the Smiley Studio under the direction of Nicolas Loufrani, its creative director.
The Smiley Company has a legal right to protect its intellectual property and take action against individuals or businesses that infringe on its trademarks and/or copyrights. Using the Smiley Company’s trademarks, rights or other brand identifiers without consent or in a way that could mislead or confuse consumers could culminate in a trademark infringement.
The original Smiley was created by Franklin Loufrani. At the time he worked as a journalist for the France Soir newspaper, and he was tasked with launching a feel-good campaign to counter a slew of negative headlines reporting civil and pollical upheaval across France. Created as a trademark promoting of hope and positivity, the Smiley brand remains as relevant today as when it was first introduced over five decades ago, having been adopted by numerous cultural movements over the years and associated with everything from free love to the digital revolution.