h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think the original smiley face was yellow - I mean the design that you saw on T-shirts and so on. Yellow like the sun? Yellow is supposed to be a happy colour I guess.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/snidmhgb/

Good on Harvey.

That makes sense.

naa... its clearly alcohol induced jaundice...

Because the have to be *some* colour and yellow is a colour.

My first thought was of The Simpsons. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Come to think of it, they may have been coloured yellow because of the Smiley, either as a direct reference/tribute of indirectly by unconscious culural osmosis...

Or just...because theyre yellow.

~Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.~

I can see why the question would arise. After all, they're not skin-coloured, the normal colour of a face (smiley or otherwise). Someone, then, chose _not_ to do them in the colour you might expect. Unless, that is, it happened accidentally, like the Incredible Hulk being green.

I have to ask the *obvious* question...what colour is a face?

Actually, I was thinking of the Simpsons too. I read somewhere that they were yellow because it avoided any question of "race" (ie, they're not white, pink, black, grey, purple, whatever).
Maybe it's the same for the smileys?

http://www.zeitgedanken.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/lego-food.jpg ?

Maybe smileys were original yellow to make sure people saw them, and because yellow is meant to be a happy colour.

When I worked for Xerox, alongside graphic designers, I discovered that hands shown on instructional material always has to be Xerox Fleshtone Grey.

The colour of The Simpson´s is supposed to be so they would be more noticeable for someone flicking through the channels.

My last partner had an intense irrational hatred for yellow...something to do with a horrible little room she slept in as a child.

She had an intensely irrational love of silver though..and made some great art with that colour.

That's what I meant. Maybe smileys were yellow to make them more visible.

woops

>>Actually, I was thinking of the Simpsons too. I read somewhere that they were yellow because it avoided any question of "race" (ie, they're not white, pink, black, grey, purple, whatever).

Implausible, surely? Isnt it clear that theyre meant to be white Americans? And they do deal with race sometimes.

Plus they have various non-yellow characters:

http://cdn2.screenjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/simpsons_dr_hibbert.jpg

http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/content/pictures/regulars/Apu1.gif