Use your noodle and doodle
IF YOU look up “Google Doodle” on the Internet, Google will tell you that in 1998, before the company was even incorporated, the concept of the doodle was born when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the (now) annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
They placed a stick figure drawing behind the 2nd “o” in the word, Google, in a comical message to users that the founders were “out of office”.
While the first doodle was relatively simple, the idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born.
Today, it has become almost commonplace to see the famous blue-red-yellow-green logo creatively tweaked in celebration of people and events all over the world, often with an educational and visually fascinating edge to it.
As the demand for it started rising in the United States and internationally, creating doodles became the responsibility of a team of talented illustrators and engineers. But what exactly goes on within this team and have you ever wondered what it would be like to work as a Doodler?
According to Alyssa Winans, a San Francisco Bay Area illustrator and game artist, it’s pretty much like working at any other office, save for the fact that she enjoys going in to work!
“I like to go into the office! I’m often working on multiple projects and collaborating with several people around the world, so the first thing I do is answer correspondence that comes in overnight.
“The rest of the day is usually split up between meetings, researching my assigned topics, and working on various stages of the art. I do always listen to music while working, though!”
The 30-year-old holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and has been working as a Doodler for about four years now.
“The best thing about this job is how much I get to learn through my work. Not only do I get to learn about incredible people and holidays all around the world, but I also get to explore different art styles, animation, and various skills that I might not get to at other jobs.”
Surprisingly, the Doodle team is not very big.
“Counting artists, engineers, marketing and product managers, there are a few dozen Doodlers. We also collaborate with engineers, marketers, and local culture experts in Google offices around the world, as well as guest artists from time to time,” Winans said.
Apart from the ideation and artwork, many of the doodles require coding and tech know-how to render them bug-free and able to work on various browsers, hence the engineers.
In the beginning, the doodles mostly celebrated familiar holidays, but today they highlight a wide array of events and personalities from the Rugby World Cup Finals, Sylvia Plath’s birthday to National Batik Day (Indonesia).
There have been many memorable doodles such as Bartolomeo Cristofori’s (the Italian who created the piano) and Ferdinand Monoyer’s (opthamologist who created the dioptre) birthdays as well as the 101st Anniversary of the First Electric Traffic Signal System.
In Malaysia, apart from the regulars such as Merdeka Day and Chinese New Year, there have been many unique doodles such as “Celebrating Nasi Lemak” and paying tribute to personalities like Teresa Teng, Tan Sri P. Ramlee, Datuk Sudirman, Yasmin Ahmad, Sybil Kathigesu and Datuk Mokhtar Dahari.
Winans herself created a teh tarik illustration that was used for the Google Doodle in 2015 to mark Hari Merdeka, and the animated nasi lemak doodle earlier this year.
“Doodle team members get together annually to decide which topics will be celebrated with a Doodle. The ideas come from numerous sources, including Google users from around the world,” Winans said.
“In addition, we also frequently commission artists local to the native country to create the art.”
The team has created over 4,000 doodles that can be viewed at the Doodle archive (bit.ly/2qgjrwy) – a comprehensive, educational compilation which can be accessed in various languages too. Winans shared: “We aim for Doodles to make folks all over the world feel seen, heard, and valued. We work hard to choose a wide range of topics and also recruit local art talent to try and be as relevant and inclusive as possible.”