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The Man Behind Google Artwork
malyn writes "CNN has an article on the artist who designs the custom Google logos for holidays, special events, etc. From the article: '[Dennis Hwang] has been manipulating the six letters in the Google name into shamrocks, fireworks, hearts and goblins since shortly after he got an internship there in 2000. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin found out that he was an art major in college. They said "Hey Dennis, why don't you give this a shot,"' and he has been doing it ever since."
maybe slashdot should hire him to design slashdot logos,... ;-)
Why can't I get an internship like that?
The logos link to Google search results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.
Fill in your own comment here.
I can just see these fetching big dollars in 20 years at Christie's.
Oh wait their digital so nevermind.
There was also a Dilbert series if anyone remembers it from when it went live.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Here's a directory of all the custom google logo artwork ("Doodles") so far:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/holidaylogos.html
I enjoy viewing his artwork. Very tastefull, and always just right. I'm sure happy to finally know the man behind the pix.
-AxXium
It's funny how getting in on the ground floor of something like Google can let one individual stand out like this... Imagine if Google decided now to start putting up cystom art with each holiday. Due to their size, I'm sure it would be a huge heck of a mess... getting an artist, deciding on designs, figuring out what goes with the corporate principles. He's a lucky guy, getting to do that on his own... I can barely get approval for a logo for our intranet, that will only be seen by 20 people, due to the issues I raised above.
Art schools have lots of talent just sitting around looking for work. I see scores of ameture websites that could look 10x better by hiring a dirt cheap art student from your local university.
Haven't you ever heard of soft stories to lessen the tragic ones! Don't want to be on a downer the whole day. :')
I may not be interesting to everyone, but as an artist I find it very interesting and pleasantly distracting. It is quite nice that Slashdot covers a wide variety of topics. Puts a smile on an otherwise rainy day.
-Axxium
This guy kind of says the phrase 'kind of' kind of too often.
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
You mean like they did on December 26, 1996? Yes, how unoriginal of them, trying to pull a fast one on us knowing full well that Google would do the same almost a half decade later.
audioLibre - freedom of music
Go back and re-read the summary. Then add "...and he's a very rich man." at the end of it. Sounds kinda sweet, doesn't it.
Oh and also, because that's what he is.
..."a wide variety of topics" being Google?
And damn where are you such that it's raining, i'll swap you for a 35-38 degC heatwave.
I happen to have loads of asian friends in the tech industry and many of them are artists and programmers.
You might well note that asians are often good at fine art due to the very nature of their writing system.
what does a little harmless tinkering around with the logo on special occasions do? only a whole lot of good. kinda like a tribute to google.
'tis but a scratch.
Interesting writeup from an XGoogler about how that turned out ..
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
This has been going on for literally decades. Lots of old "time sharing" systems would add custom MOTDs for holidays. The University of Illinois Plato System used to customize the "clock page" on the login display (512x512 plasma display terminals back in the '70s!). It got turned into a pumpkin on Halloween, a Christmas tree on christmas, a turkey on ThanksGiving http://www.platopeople.com/whatsnew.html/ midway down the page is an example image from 1973.
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..."a wide variety of topics" being Google? No..I mean it's a lot better this than seeing stories repeated over and over. Or perhaps "Vista delayed yet again!" etc...etc... :-)
-Axxium
From what I learned in the 80's (in the media with all the Japan bashing, etc..), Asians are not creative: they just learn everything by wrote and regurgitate what they've memorized.
Any company that can identify, hire, promote, motivate, and retain people like this is going to be successful... oh and have great logos!
Always be polite.
Crow T. Trollbot
This job has been mentioned a few times and I've always wonder how much he makes at it, and how many logos etc he has to make. The article points out it's on 20% of what he does, but not really what else he does (and of course, mentioning pay-rate is usually considered rude).
It also mentions how sometimes sites suffer an effect similar to a slashdotting through being linked from the google logos, so I found if google might consider coordinating with some of those a little better to offer temporary mirroring services.
Out of the logos shown on the CNN site, I think that the machaelangelo is probably my fav.
http://www.google.com/doodle.html http://www.google.com/doodle2.html http://www.google.com/doodle3.html http://www.google.com/doodle4.html and so on.... http://www.google.com/doodle11.html
I don't want a signature.
Unfortunately the CNN.com article left out an interesting nugget of information: Google doodling can be quite lucrative.
We mentioned in this CNET News.com piece how Mr. Hwang cashed in $489,000 worth of stock in one sale (and that was when Google was much less richly valued): http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-5447373.html
The ACLU has never interfered in the private religious activities conducted by a business. It's only when government gets involved that the ACLU cries foul. For example if it's a government project, or that business gets special subsidies from the government, or that government is providing the business with free police, fire protection, and road service.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Does anyone know why they've got artwork for, say, Thanksgiving every single year, and some seemingly off-mainstream ones (Persian New Year, e.g.), but they've not ever done Christmas or Chanukah? All they have is some "holiday" mumbo-jumbo with snowmen. Is this yet another win for the politically correct crowd, or is something less sinister at work?
"Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world -- his work doesn't hang in galleries or museums, but it's been viewed hundreds of millions of times."
So, how is this different from someone who designs the logo of a national (or international) fast-food chain, or the package art for a widely distributed consumer product?
Even if it's not 100% of his job duties, he's being paid to produce artwork to build & reinforce a brand. Sounds like the job a *lot* of graphic artists hold, and I'm not entirely convinced that it's seen by more people (more views != more viewers) than a number of national or international ad campaigns.
Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
From TFA: "Sometimes we unfortunately take some sites down, so we have to cycle through different search queries midday,"
Have you heard of Google Cache? Just link to it instead if the site goes down.
factor 966971: 966971
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why would the ACLU be involved? If anything, they'd protect Google's rights to display what they want.
6 years of editing the same stupid logo ... could a job get any more boring? I'm surprised the guy hasn't offed himself.
As noted here, the doodles aren't exactly religious or specific to "Christmas" (or other specific religious December holidays). Go review the "holiday" logos: they have snow, lights, and gift exchanges, but no visible Christmas trees, no Nativity scene, no menorahs or dreidels, no Kwanzaa references - nor even any people, so far as I can tell...
Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
I would have thought Bastille day would be more of a concern for Americans - you still hate the French right?
Sorry, but that really sounds a lot like thumb rolling for him at Google then...
The occasional art for a few holidays and events a year is a FIFTH of his workload? Jeez!
I wonder if it's a misleading number from CNN.com, but somehow I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually true as it's in line with my Google work environment prejudices.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Seeing this interview, I can't help but think of an Achewood comic from a couple months ago. http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=05172006. I'm glad to know someone's mom did not actually draw it for them.
Look... if Bill O'Reilly says they're evil, then they're evil! Don't expect me to think beyond that!
Any company that [is Google] is going to be successful..
..unless invaded by monster robots infecting everything with Sony rootkits!
Ok, ok, I'm just too tired of the GooglePraise. He's good. No, he's great.
It's just that.. it's a search engine, all right? A good search engine.
Let's not pretend it makes farts smell like flowers.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
He missed Nikola Tesla's 150th, though. Google'd better through one hell of a 151st to make up for it...
Yes, I can't wait to see his take on OMG Ponies !!!.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Wasn't he, or Google, sued by some dead artist's wife for ripping off the artist's "style" in some homage he did to that particular artist? A truly meritless suit if I've ever heard of one.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Really? Working on the Google Death Star(tm)?
Wow, that brings back some memories. I loved that game!
I remember when I was playing it on Christmas break on my family's Macintosh in 1988. When the Christmas tree showed up, I panicked and my first thought that I had been hit by a virus!
With regards to the article itself I think AxXium sums up my view best:
I think it's high time he made one for all of us ./ers, eh?
:-)
Maybe something simple like this: http://boling.us/temp/google-slashdot.png
I'd be willing to bet 99% of Americans have never met a French person. In my exprience they're very nice people.
Of course there's good and bad in all, but in general I don't think theres anything wrong with the French which is a pissing contest betweem two nations who both want to claim to be the best in the world.
I like muppets.
The point is, they are not lamely ripping off the idea. If they were doing it before Google, maybe Google ripped the idea off of them. It doesn't matter WHO made it popular.
Hi Doesn't-Get-The-Joke-Guy, how are you today?
I'm guessing you missed this one:
http://www.google.com/logos/bastilleday02.gif
I'm fine thank you honey. Hows yourself?
I like muppets.
I's doin' pretty good. Thanks for askin'. Toodles!
What about good, important stories?
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
Does he have a bf?
Kind of like how /. reposts the same old stories every day or week or so. Seriously. Instead of a black cat, it would have been more fitting if they had showed Neo reading /. on a work terminal in the Matrix...
/. editors sitting in an office playing Nintentdo all day or something while a dupebot.py script consumes about 90% process time on their servers?
Is there really not that much tech news out there?! This same story only appeared less than a week ago. Are