Slashdot Mirror
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?
www.google.com
-sergey
It says a lot about the world of 24 hour news that this even qualifies.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll
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 love how Yahoo has taken to lamely ripping off the idea of theming thier logo on holidays and special occasions.
"Sufferin' succotash."
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.
And he's not a doctor or engineer! Yet he's still working in the tech industry. Hmmm...
This guy kind of says the phrase 'kind of' kind of too often.
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
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.
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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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.
I have to say, I am continually amazed that the "perpetually offended" types haven't gone after Google for brazenly commemorating religious holidays like Christmas, and American imperialist holidays like Thanksgiving. I suppose it's only a matter of time before folks like the ACLU try to put a stop to this, but until then I'll simply enjoy them.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
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
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
6 years of editing the same stupid logo ... could a job get any more boring? I'm surprised the guy hasn't offed himself.
I bet they pay him slave wages for his work, which isn't suprising to me, as almost every asian I've met would rather commit harikari than not be suppliant and submissive.
Where was Christ on Christmas?
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.
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
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