Doodle 4 Google

When I saw this video I got soooo curious about this Google creative team! When I see different google doodles, I always smile, but I never thought about how they are created and who are these people who created them. So I wanted to do a little bit of research and find out about doodles!

Most companies take their corporate logo seriously and while Google also takes fun seriously. The combination of the two is what they’ve come to refer to as a “doodle”. The first doodle was made in 1998 when Google founders Larry and Sergey were attending the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the second “o” in the logo to let users know they were “out of the office”.

Users were surprised to see a change to the standard and simple Google logo but enjoyed it and the playful nature of, what was then, a very young company.

Since then there have been over 1000 doodles for Google homepages around the world celebrating characters from Big Bird to Batman. Some doodles run globally (across all the Google homepages) and others are specific to just one country. Sometimes there are even multiple ones running at the same time, so our users in France may see one while in Japan they see another. For example, the picture below is from 16th February 2012 - and it represents Lithuanian Act of Independence
 and obviously, this logo appeared only in Lithuania!

 

These doodles started as simple illustrations, like Burning Man, and progressed to more complex and sophisticated styles like The Anniversary of Pinocchio’s Publication.

As technology has grown and developed, so have doodles. In 2011, users got to explore 20,000 leagues under the sea with Jules Verne and share a tune they strummed on the Les Paul guitar or even play a game of PAC-MAN. (You better click on the last 3 links!)


So, how Google organised a team?

In 2000, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day. Pleased with the result, Dennis was then appointed Google’s chief doodler and doodles became a regular occurrence on the Google homepage.

Over time, the demand for doodles quickly rose both in the U.S. and internationally. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented designers. For them, creating doodles has become a team effort to enliven the Google homepage and bring smiles to a myriad of Google users worldwide.

They have also been doing different competitions, like “I love football” for 4-17 years old and the current competition running in the USA from students in grades K-12 - "If I could travel in time, I'd visit.....".

However, for those outside US, there are other opportunities. The doodle team is open to everyone's ideas - anyone can either send a request/idea for the next doodle ooooor design a doodle and send it to Google Doodle Team! This is email. And here you can find all the doodles!

Who knows, maybe one day you'll see your own doodle on the Google search? Or I will draw my own Google Doodle idea.. Why not? That's actually a good idea!