With over 700 fun and geeky custom logos adorning Google’s international homepages, doodles have become synonymous with the Google brand. Through a visual feast of never-before-seen high-res art and outtakes, this presentation will examine the history, popularity, and controversy of Google doodles from the perspective of the small team of artists and developers who create them. This being SXSW Interactive, we will highlight the ingenuity behind special doodles like the playable Pac-Man and animated Rube Goldberg/Fourth of July doodles. We also will take a look behind the scenes of the H.G. Wells mystery doodles, the week that the Sesame Street muppets took over Google, the action-packed Olympics series, and more ways we play on our homepage. Finally, we’ll touch on the feedback we receive, lessons learned, the Doodle4Google children’s art competition, what it takes to be a Google Doodler, and the future of Google doodles.
Marcin Wichary is a senior user experience designer at Google. His latest projects include Chrome, Google Instant, and Google’s real-time search; he also programmed the popular Google Pac-Man and Jules Verne doodles. Marcin also spends a lot of time teaching and evangelizing HTML5, especially from the standpoint of design and usability. After hours, he plays piano (really badly), takes photos, and volunteers as a docent at the Computer History Museum.
Ryan Germick is the Creative Lead for the Google Doodle Team. He's created and collaborated on Google homepage logos with subject matter as diverse Sesame Street, Akira Kurosawa, Pac-Man, and halloween candy. Recently rejoining the team after a hiatus designing Ze Frank Game's star.me, he's been creating doodles, graphics, videos, April Fool's Day jokes and more for Google since 2006.
