MATT DREW GOOGLE DOODLE
A GRAPHIC designer and animator from Wales was behind Google’s St David’s Day themed lovespoon.
Matt Jones, from Bangor, Gwynedd, was asked to design the striking image which appeared on the Google homepage yesterday in the UK.
Now living in LA, Matt began his training in animation at the Mid Glamorgan Centre of Design and Art Technology in Pontypridd.
Through the course, he met fellow artist and designer Matt Cruickshank, who now woks for Google, and having kept in touch over the years, Matt was approached to contribute as a “guest doodler” for St David’s Day.
Matt said:”I decided a lovespoon would be an appropriate choice this year and something a bit different that a non-Welsh designer might not have thought of.”
After considering images of dragons, corgis, choirs, castles and harps as possible doodle subjects, Matt decided to focus on lovespoons, a traditional Welsh ornate symbol carved by young suitors as far back as the 17th century.
He said: “I played with as many Welsh icons and symbols as I could think of but they’d mostly been done before in previous St David’s Day doodles.
“I knew there was one thing I hadn’t thought of – the lovespoon.
“I’ve always considered them a unique part of Welsh tradition and even though they hang vertically I thought they’re so graphic in design that it could work fine in the horizontal doodle format.”
Matt, who worked for Pixar in San Francisco on films such as Inside Out and Finding Dory, said: “It’s a local doodle and only on the UK homepage but still, it will be seen by many back home and it’s an honour to be invited to celebrate my homeland and be reconnected with Wales for a day.”