August 1999–present
Google has had several
logos since its renaming from "BackRub". The current
official
Google pop logo was
designed by
Ruth Kedar, and is a
wordmark based on the
Catull typeface.The company also includes various
modifications and/or humorous features, such as cartoon
modifications, of their logo for use on
holidays,
birthdays of
famous people, and major events, such as the
Olympics.These special logos, some designed by
Dennis Hwang, have become known as
Google Doodles.
History of the Google logo
Google in 1998, showing the original
logo
In 1998
Sergey Brin created a
computerized version of the Google letters using the
free graphics program
GIMP
after learning how to use it. The exclamation mark was added,
mimicking the Yahoo! logo.“There were a lot of different color
iterations,” says Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed
the now-famous logo. “We ended up with the primary colors, but
instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color
on one of the O's, which brought back the idea that Google doesn’t
follow the rules.”
Google Doodle
The first
Google Doodle was to the Burning Man Festival
of 1998. The doodle was designed by
Larry Page and
Sergey
Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers
crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside
contractor, until Larry and Sergey asked then-
intern Dennis Hwang to
design a logo for
Bastille Day in 2000.
Hwang has been designing the Google Doodles ever since.Clicking on
a Google Doodle links to a string of
Google search results about the topic, which
can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.
Google doodles have been produced for the
birthdays of several noted
artists and
scientists,
including
Andy Warhol,
Albert Einstein,
Leonardo da Vinci,
Rabindranath Tagore,
Louis Braille,
Percival Lowell,
Edvard Munch,
Nikola
Tesla,
Béla Bartók,
René Magritte,
Michael Jackson,
H. G. Wells,
Samuel Morse,
Hans Christian Ørsted and
Mohandas Gandhi among others.
Additionally, the featuring of Lowell's logo design coincided with
the launch of another Google product,
Google
Maps. Google doodles are also used to depict major events at
Google, such as the company's own anniversary.
British
novelist Roald Dahl has
been featured, with the logo containing characters and items from
some of his books, such as Matilda. The celebration of
historical events is another common topic of Google Doodles
including a
Lego brick design in celebration of
the interlocking
Lego block's 50th anniversary.
The anniversary of
H. G. Wells'
War of the Worlds has
also been celebrated.On February 14, 2007,
Valentine's Day, the Google doodle featured
a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined the second "g" and the
"l" as its green stem. This design gave the appearance that the "l"
was missing, thereby displaying "Googe". In response to several
speculations the Official Google Blog, responded: "When you look at
the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped
a letter, or have decided that 'Googe' has a better ring to it.
None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and
poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if
you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a
strawberry."For the celebration of
Earth
Hour, the white background was transformed black to symbolize
"the turning off of lights".
Google was criticized in 2007 for not featuring versions of the
Google logo for American
patriotic
holidays such as
Memorial Day and
Veterans Day. That year, Google
featured a logo commemorating
Veterans
Day.
Google also featured a doodle with
Mahatma Gandhi's face on
October 2,
2009, the birthday
of
Mahatma Gandhi, which is observed
by the UN as the International Day for Non-Violence.
On
October 7,
2009,
Google featured a doodle of their logo as a
barcode to recognize the anniversary of its
invention in 1948 by
Bernard
Silver.
On
October 31,
2009,
the Google page displayed a 4-step
Halloween logo, showing a more and more chaotic
display of sweets after the first 3 clicks, before redirecting the
user to the search results page.
During the week of
November 2,
2009, Google featured a new picture of
Sesame Street characters to celebrate the
show's 40th aniversary.
On Friday,
November 13, 2009, Google featured the
moon as the second "o" in Google with the other
letters appearing as water, to celebrate NASA
's
confirmation of significant amounts of water
on the moon.
Doodle4Google competitions
Google holds a
Doodle4Google competition for
students in grades
K–12 to
create their own Google doodle.
Winning doodles go onto the Doodle4Google
website, where the public can vote for the winner, who wins a trip
to the Googleplex
and the hosting of the winning doodle for 24 hours
on the Google website. The
competition originated in the United Kingdom, and now also exists
in the United States.
The competition was also held in Ireland
in
2008.. Google announced Doodle4Google competition
for India
in 2009 and
the winning doodle was displayed on the Google India homepage on
November 14th.
Favicon
Google's
favicon is a version of the
lowercase "g" from its official logo,
introduced in 2008, and originally intended to be a part of a
larger set of icons developed for better
scalability on
mobile
devices. The current version includes background colors red,
green, blue and yellow.. In June 2008, Google launched a contest
intended to receive favicon submissions, and a design made by André
Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University
of Campinas in Brazil, formed the basis of the new design. From
Official Google Blog: "His placement of a white 'g' on a
color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive,
while seeming to capture the essence of Google". Google logo font
is
Catull BQ, and it was created for Berthold in
1982 by German designer Gustav Jaeger. Catull has a calligraphic
feel with contrasting stroke weights and distinctive serifs.
References
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