Smiley London
Smiley face was forever immortalised as the iconic image of the acid house music movement in the 1980s. During this ground breaking time for dance music and club culture, Smiley was adopted by almost every clubber and raver globally and adorned every dance floor from London to Chicago.
This was the beginning of a special relationship between house music and Smiley that has spanned over 25 years and remains as strong today as it was back in the day. In the last 5 years dance music has exploded back onto the forefront of popular culture bringing with it a renaissance for Smiley.
Smiley London Concept Store at BoxPark
Smiley London at Boxpark brings rave to retail. Featuring corrugated metal walls and clothes rails, product displays fashioned out of bespoke speaker cabinets and flight cases replacing traditional clothes stands.
Resident DJ Jorge, is always on hand spinning the best beats to ensure the Smiley London experience is complete. The store itself only sells limited edition exclusive Smiley London merchandise that is only available at Boxpark or on Smiley.com.
Smiley London Faces and places
When buying Smiley London products you join an elite collective of scene makers that have helped shape and craft the world of dance music today.
The Company
Smiley, the happiest brand ever, was founded by Franklin Loufrani in 1971 through a newspaper promotion to make people happy. Using the logo to highlight good news, it allowed readers to see the bright side of life throughout any day. In a very short time Smiley became the most recognizable icon in the world and remains so to this day.
In 1988 Franklin Loufrani started trademarking the name "Smiley". Smiley has always taken pride in the knowledge that through forty-years of extensive development, investment and passionate creativity; a truly special brand with history was born behind its iconic logo.
A music Revolution
The Smiley brand, began to reach global recognition as an 'iconic' logo with the rise of modernity, contemporary society and movements firmly establishing its heritage and identity in 'Pop' culture. From the 80’s evolution in electronic music, Smiley become the universal symbol for the explosion of house music. To this day, it continues to be a major part of the fashion lifestyle DNA of this brand. Later, In the 1990s the original smiley logo was omnipresent during the explosion of grunge rock music.
Changing the world with technology
In 1997, Nicolas Loufrani (the son of Franklin Loufrani founder of the original smiley logo) decided to explore this concept of digital communication and started to create a dictionary of icons based on Smiley to replace 'text emoticons' made solely of fonts. Nicolas began to develop expressive characters which helped to promote the universal language of the 'emoticon'.
The first Smiley icons appeared online in 1997. In 2001 the first Smiley dictionary was placed online, associating 1000 Smiley icons to emoticons.
There are now over 2000 different icons in this dictionary with more being added every day.
Smiley is more than an icon, brand and lifestyle; it's a spirit and a philosophy and exists to remind people of how powerful a smile is and how much a simple smiley can change both your life and the lives of others around you.
ADDRESS
Smiley Shop, Boxpark, 2-4 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6GY
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 729 1408
Email: shop@smiley.com
TUBE
BOXPARK Shoreditch is located directly next to Shoreditch High Street on the London Overground Line. BOXPARK Shoreditch is a 10 minute walk from both Liverpool Street Station (on the Central, Circle, Hammersmith and City, and Metropolitan Lines) and a 10 minute walk from Old Street Station (on the Northern Line).
BUS
Bus routes 8, 26, 35, 47, 48, 67, 78, 149, 242, 388 all run within 2 minutes walking distance of Boxpark.
CAR
BOXPARK Shoreditch is outside of the congestion charge zone. Paid parking is available nearby.
BICYCLE
Boxpark’s bicycle rack is located at the Shoreditch High Street Station end. It is lit, and under CCTV surveillance 24/7.
Link: http://www.smiley.com