Celebrate the impact of the smiley face on art, music, pop, and alternative culture with The Sm;)e Book. Showcasing an unprecedented collection of some of the world's most powerful visual communicators.

From plastic bags to original emojis, household items and paraphernalia, the yellow smiley face is an iconic mark of modern culture. Funding a new book on Kickstarter celebrates the symbol's decades of history while delving into eclectic uses ranging from fine art to graffiti to Hollywood. In 60 pages, The Sm;)e Book compiles works by 70 artists, including Banksy, the Chapman brothers, Alicia McCarthy and James Joyce.

Despite the emoticon's well-known status in mainstream culture, the book is particularly personal for co-creators DB Burkeman and Rich Browd. Burkeman shares with Colossal that her mother was fascinated by the hippie movement and covered surfaces with smiley face stickers and adorned her clothing with smiley patches and pins. As he grew up and later became a DJ, he noticed the symbol flourishing in the punk and rave scenes as a new type of countercultural brand. Browd had a similar childhood experience and became fascinated by the icon's “graffiti, skate graphics, and a wealthy friend's parents' pop art collection.”

Today, the duo remains enamored with the evolution of the smiley face and its prevalence in seemingly contradictory spaces. “In the history of graphic design, I can't think of any other symbol that has had such duality: used simultaneously as a positive booster of the mainstream and a countercultural subverter of that mainstream,” Burkeman writes.