About the Summerfest smiley face logo

For as long as Milwaukee has had Summerfest, the sprawling weeks-long music and food festival at the lakefront, the city has also had its iconic logo: a thick, macaroni noodle-like red smile curling up around two red dots for eyes.

Designed by Noel Spangler and Richard D. Grant, the logo has represented the Milwaukee music festival for over 50 years.

As former Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl noted in 2013, we’ve seen five different Betty Crockers during that time span, and Pepsi has tweaked its logo four times since Summerfest began.

During festival season, the seminal smile can be seen across the city — on signs, brochures, advertisements, newspaper articles and other spots.

When Spangler died in Milwaukee in 2020 at the age of 97, officials with Summerfest’s parent company Milwaukee World Festival Inc. said the design “truly embodies Summerfest’s mission of bringing the community together to celebrate music, diversity and summer fun.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: About the Summerfest smiley face logo