One of the icons that most represents Club is the mythical Smiley, which we have adopted as a mascot and symbol of our store: a round one, two eyes and a smile... as simple as that! And with such a complex story behind it! Of which we want to share a little.

There are two main theories: that the Smiley logo was born back in 1963 by a designer for an insurance company in the United States, specifically in Massachusetts, named Harvey Ball, who created this famous illustration on a company commission. His work involved 10 minutes of design and a salary of only 45 dollars, according to legend.

This early version of Smiley is distinguished by having somewhat uneven eyes and a thick smile that is certainly irregular in the curved line.

That logo of the commercial designer Ball was undoubtedly engraved in the imagination of many people who saw it for the first time, but nobody thought of registering it as a trademark... Until a young French journalist arrived, fed up with negative news in his newspaper, he decided to dedicate a corner of the publication to good and happy news, which were accompanied by a smiley face, since 1971.

Already in 1972, exactly 51 years ago, the journalist Franklin Loufrani decided to register that design, which according to his heirs and owners today defend the rights of the original Smiley and The Smiley Company, the Frenchman was the authentic inventor of the logo.

It is very possible that the journalist had that recognizable image in his unconscious and that makes us all so happy... And that he simply drew it on a piece of paper, as many of us have done at some point in life, for a need he had for his work. Be that as it may, he also had the ability to register it, although we can also say that today, the Smiley is a universal icon.

Anyone has a Smiley in their pocket, since it is one of the most used emojis on our mobile phones thanks to Unicode and its versions of happy faces that represent countless emotions.

Also, as you said, it is a symbol that we all like to draw, that is part of our culture in many ways, and that has such a positive message that it does not give rise to a war of who invented it or who came first. Smiley is everyone's friend, and he came to planet earth to stay!

His symbolism is transversal: from children's language, to an icon for electronic music, acid, the Belgian New Beat, as well as a representation of a cheerful and optimistic way of thinking! For this reason, it also illustrates our Club bags together with the message "Have a nice day", a design that has come from the inspiration of convenience stores in the United States and that we have adopted as one of the hallmarks of our project!

Also, our love for this icon has pushed us to have it everywhere in the store! Take the time to smile!

Here are some of our favourite Smiley products in CLUB!

Smiley rugs by Maison Deux in 100cm and 200cm (in yellow and pink!)

New Simley hairclaw by Coucou Suzette