Most companies take their corporate logo seriously and while we do too, we also take fun seriously. The combination of the two is what we’ve come to refer to as a “doodle”. We made our first doodle 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 our 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.
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.
Soon after the first Google doodle, freelance artists began working on others and in 2000, Dennis Hwang, a webmaster at the time, became Google’s official chief doodler. Twelve years later, the team has grown into a group of illustrators (aka doodlers) and engineers. Occasionally the team will work with a guest artist as well.
Googlers and fans from around the world suggest the topics from which the doodle team doodles (you can suggest one too at proposals@google.com).
You never know what doodle might come next but we’re particularly fond of science, innovation, creativity, and fun. We also love to celebrate cultures from all around the world.
Who knows, maybe someday we’ll be doodling for the invention you shared with the world!
There is! You can always visit www.google.com/doodles to see all the doodles that have run around the world. You can record a tune on the Les Paul guitar doodle, play a game of PAC-MAN, or watch some clips of I Love Lucy.