Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Smiley, Smiley Face

The First 3D Smiley Graphical Emoticons, Up for Auction as NFTs

Emoticons have been around a lot longer than one might think.   In a March 30, 1881 item in Puck which included typographical representations of joy, melancholy, indifference, and astonishment, it was noted, "We wish it to be distinctly understood that the letterpress department of this paper is not going to be trampled on by any tyrannical crowd of artists in existence. We mean to let the public see that we can lay out, in our own typographical line, all the cartoonists that ever walked. For fear of startling the public we will give only a small specimen of the artistic achievements within our grasp, by way of a first installment. The following are from Studies in Passions and Emotions."

Was that the first time that typographical emoticons were ever used?  I have my doubts, the ambiguity of the New York Times transcript of an 1862 Abraham Lincoln speech aside. Calling historical firsts can be tricky business, and history tends to be a series of organically messy and overlapping evolutionary steps.  For example, by the time that Scott Fahlman had created the first ASCII emoticons in 1982, PLATO system users had been communicating with a pretty extensive set of crude graphical emoticons for about a decade, and perhaps longer.

A 1966 DC Comics public service ad suggests that such graphical facial-expression-range iconic symbolism was not uncommon by that time, which tracks with the notion that the now-familiar yellow smiley symbolism was created by graphic designer Harvey Ball for the State Mutual Life Assurance Company in 1963.  In 1971, Franklin Loufrani designed a smiley face for use in the newspaper France-Soir, and registered a trademark for this smiley symbol.  His The Smiley Company, which his son Nicolas Loufrani now runs, currently owns a number of related trademark in many countries around the world.  The Smiley Company is familiar to many comic fans and Bleeding Cool readers, as the trademarks they hold globally have caused DC Comics to avoid using the Watchmen-related smiley symbol on covers outside of the United States and Canada.  In fact, the very first Bleeding Cool post in 2009 referenced this issue.

Beginning in 1997, Nicholas Loufrani developed a set of 3D smileys to convey a range of emotions, thus inching into the territory that we now call emoji. Loufrani's set was soon licensed to companies including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and SFR (Vodafone).  In 1999, Japanese telecom NTT DoCoMo released their own set of 176 emoji designed by Shigetaka Kurita for use on their mobile phones.

Last September, Heritage Auctions auctioned off an NFT for Scott Fahlman's first emoticons, and now Heritage is offering the set of the first smiley "graphical emoticons" designed by Nicolas Loufrani for the Smiley Company at auction as an NFT.  All proceeds from the sale will benefit the non profit The Smiley Movement, a social enterprise helping charities engage with the public to promote a happier world where people care about each other.

DALLAS, Texas (July 5, 2022) — In celebration of World Emoji Day, Heritage Auctions will present an event sure to put smiles on faces. The Smiley Revolution: An NFT Auction on July 17 consists of one happy-making lot — an NFT of the world's first graphical emoticons.

This set of 42 three-dimensional Smileys, conceptualized from 1997-1999 by Nicolas Loufrani — CEO of The Smiley Company, a global IP & licensing company — represents not only the roots of modern-day emojis but also a pivotal point in cultural and linguistic history: the birth of a universal language that embodied the spirit of the internet.

"We are honored to be offering the first 3D Smileys at auction," says Taylor Curry, Heritage Auctions' Director of Modern & Contemporary Art, New York. "While these have existed since 1997, it wasn't until the emergence of NFTs that something like this could be sold with direct verifiable provenance from their creator. The Smileys created by Nicolas Loufrani not only changed the way we communicate but became the first graphical emoticons used in technology. Loufrani's graphical emoticons are the precursors to what we now know as emojis. The sale culminates on World Emoji Day, signifying the historical importance and cultural impact of Smileys in today's world."

Loufrani's Smileys were the first of their kind, built with inspiration from the ASCII (text-based) emoticons pioneered by computer scientist Scott Fahlman, as well as the iconic original 2D Smiley that Loufrani's father, Franklin, had trademarked in 1971. While the initial text-based emoticons, such as the :-) smiley and :-( frowny faces, were intended as joke markers to provide tonal context to online posts, they were unable to keep up with the nuance of genuine human emotion required to communicate online.

As Loufrani notes, he envisioned a means of using graphical emoticons as "an easy hack to convey an emotion." After extensive experimentation, he settled on the original set of 42 Smileys, complete with heart eyes, sunglasses, blushing cheeks and a wide range of other expressions.

"On the 50th anniversary of our company, I am super excited to release the archives of the first 42 3D Smileys I created to replace ASCII emoticons with a universal logographic language, easily understandable by everyone across the world," Loufrani says. "NFTs give collectors the opportunity to make this artwork a unique edition, witnessing a key milestone in the development of the fastest-growing language ever created — and the first, and probably still the biggest, viral digital phenomenon in history."

The July auction comes on the heels of Heritage's September 2021 auction of an NFT of the world's first emoticons, an event that brought $237,500 for a non-fungible token version of the smiley and frowny emoticons first typed in 1982 by computer science professor Scott Fahlman.

The NFT of Loufrani's creations is accompanied by a canvas print of The First Graphical Emoticons, and all proceeds from the sale will benefit the nonprofit Smiley Movement, which aims to inspire people to drive positive action through news, talks and charity matchmaking. This auction also marks the beginning of Smiley's dive into the Web 3.0 space. Blockchain technology allows The Smiley Company to further embrace positivity, creativity and collaboration in the near future through tailored NFT drops, exciting Metaverse projects and continued community collaborations.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!