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Here’s The Winner Of The Doodle 4 Google Contest

Chris Crum — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:09 +0000

On Wednesday, Google announced that Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisconsin has been named the national winner of its 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google contest. The doodle, titled, “Coming Home” will be featured on Google’s U.S. homepage on Thursday.

Brady is a 12th grade student at Sparta High School. She will receive a $30,000 college scholarship in addition to having her doodle featured. She also gets a Chromebook, and her school gets a $50,000 technology grant.

Google Doodle Team Lead Ryan Germick writes:

Students across all 50 states amazed us with their creative interpretations of this year’s theme, “My Best Day Ever…” From scuba diving to dinosaurs to exploring outer space, we were wowed by the ways young artists brought their best days to life in their doodles.

Sabrina’s doodle stood out in the crowd; it tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google.

There were 130,000 submissions to the contest. Google lists the national finalists (who will each win a $5,000 scholarship) here.

Saul Bass Google Doodle Hits The Rest Of The World

Chris Crum — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:30:28 +0000

As previously reported, Google has been running a Google doodle honoring Saul Bass in parts of the world where it is May 8th. The doodle has now worked its way over to our neck of the woods in the U.S.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer who passed away in April of 1996. May 8th is his birthday (he was born in 1920).

Even if you have never heard of Saul Bass, it’s nearly impossible to not be familiar with at least some of his work. You can watch Google’s doodle animation, and see if anything sticks out to you.

Bass is mostly known for designing film title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. Some of his most famous work includes the title sequence to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the AT&T and Bell logos. He also designed the logos for Continental and United Airlines.

Following is a list of his work.

Film title sequences:

Carmen Jones (1954)
The Big Knife (1955)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
The Racers (1955)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Shrike (1955)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Storm Center (1956)
Attack (1956)
Edge of the City (1957)
Saint Joan (1957)
The Pride and the Passion (1957)
The Young Stranger (1957)
Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
Cowboy (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
The Big Country (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
The Facts of Life (1960)
Exodus (1960)
Ocean’s 11 (1960)
West Side Story (1961)
Something Wild (1961)
Advise and Consent (1962)
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
The Victors (1963)
Nine Hours to Rama (1963)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
The Cardinal (1963)
In Harm’s Way (1965)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Grand Prix (1966)
Not with My Wife, You Don’t! (1966)
Seconds (1966)
Such Good Friends (1971)
That’s Entertainment, Part II (1976)
Broadcast News (1987)
Big (1988)
The War of the Roses (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
Doc Hollywood (1991)
Mr. Saturday Night (1992)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Higher Learning (1995)
Casino (1995)

Movie posters:

Carmen Jones (1954)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Edge of the City (1956)
Storm Center (1956)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Saint Joan (1957)
Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
The Big Country (1958) (style b poster)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Exodus (1960)
The Magnificent Seven (1960) (design not used)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Advise & Consent (1962)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
The Cardinal (1963)
In Harm’s Way (1964)
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
The Two of Us (1967)
Why Man Creates (1968)
Very Happy Alexander (1969)
Exodus (1960)
The Magnificent Seven (1960) (design not used)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Advise & Consent (1962)
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
The Cardinal (1963)
In Harm’s Way (1964)
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
The Two of Us (1967)
Why Man Creates (1968)
Very Happy Alexander (1969)
Such Good Friends (1971)
Rosebud (1975)
Brothers (1977)
Notes on the Popular Arts (1977)
Bass on Titles (1978)
The Human Factor (1979)
The Shining (1980)
The Solar Film (1980)
Return from the River Kwai (1989)
Schindler’s List (1993)

Logos and designs:

Alcoa (1963)
AT&T Corporation (1969 and 1983)
Avery International (1975)
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (1980)
Celanese (1965)
Continental Airlines (1968)[10]
Dixie (1969)
Frontier Airlines (1978)
Fuller Paints (1962)
Geffen Records (1980)
General Foods (1984)
Girl Scouts of the USA (1978)
Japan Energy Corporation (1993)
J. Paul Getty Trust (1993)
Kibun Foods (1984)
Kose Cosmetics (1991)
Lawry’s Foods (1959)
Minami Sports (1991)
Minolta (1978)
NCR Corporation (1996)
Quaker Oats (1969)
Rockwell International (1968)
Security Pacific Bank (1966)
United Airlines (1974)
United Way (1972)
US Postage (1983)[11]
Warner Communications (1974)
Wienerschnitzel (1978)
Wesson Oil (1964)
YWCA (1988)

Saul Bass Gets The Google Doodle Treatment

Chris Crum — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:32:30 +0000

Google is running a doodle celebrating the birthday of graphic designer and typographer Saul Bass in parts of the world where the date has changed to May 8th.

Also a filmmaker, Bass is best known for his work on movie title sequences, posters and corporate logos. How many films can you pick out from Google’s animation?

Saul Bass did title sequences for the following films:

He did movie posters for:

Bass also did logos and designs for:

Hat tip to Patrick from DoodleShow, Lists from Wikipedia

Google Celebrates Labour Day With Homepage Doodle

Chris Crum — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:35:21 +0000

Google is celebrating Labour Day with a homepage doodle in countries where the day is celebrated on May 1. This includes a number of countries across Europe and Asia.

Many of these countries, including India, China, Nepal, and Pakistan consider the 1st of May a public holiday. Most offices, banks, schools, etc. remain closed.

Here in the U.S., Labor Day is not celebrated until September. It will be interesting to see if Google reuses this doodle when the time comes in a few months.

Wikipedia has a great breakdown of when Labor Day is celebrated in different countries around the world.

France gets a different doodle today for Fête du Travail:

Here’s a look at the doodles Google ran around the world last week.

St. George’s Day 2013 Celebrated With Google Doodle

Chris Crum — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:36:53 +0000

Google is celebrating St. George’s Day 2013 in the UK with a doodle on its homepage.

The day represents the feast day of Saint George, and is celebrated by Christian churches in several countries, though the doodle appears to be unique to Google’s UK site.

Wikipedia provides a little more background on the day:

As Easter often falls close to Saint George’s Day, the church celebration of the feast may be moved from 23 April. In England, where it is the National Saint’s Day, for 2011 and 2014 the Anglican and Catholic calendars celebrate Saint George’s Day on the first Monday after Easter Week (2 May and 28 April, respectively). Similarly, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of the feast moves accordingly to the first Monday after Easter or, as it is sometimes called, to the Monday of Bright Week.

The doodle itself is interesting, showing St. George protecting a princess from a dragon. Here’s an oil painting called “Saint George and the Dragon” (via Wikimedia commons) depicting a similar scene:

More recent Google Doodles here.

Earth Day 2013 Celebrated with Interactive Google Doodle

Josh Wolford — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:49:19 +0000

For Earth Day 2013, Google is celebrating with an interactive doodle that lets you experience much of what nature has to offer – in animated form, of course. Google’s Earth Day doodle lets you change the seasons, weather, moon, and more.

“Today we are celebrating Earth Day with an interactive doodle that captures a slice of nature’s subtle wonders. We hope you enjoy discovering animals, controlling the weather, and observing the seasons. Use the sightseeing checklist below to make sure you do not miss anything!” says Doodler Leon Hong.

Indeed, Google has provided a Doodle checklist. So, click around and have fun.

Earth Day, as we know it, is celebrated on April 22nd. Back in 1969, the first Earth Day was proposed at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco to be celebrated on March 21st. A month or so later, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson held an additional Earth Day on April 22nd, as an environmental teach-in. In 1990, the April celebration went international, and it is currently celebrated in nearly 200 countries worldwide.

Last year, Google’s Earth Day doodle was also animated, though not quite interactive. The doodle was a time lapse photo of flowers blooming and eventually forming the Google logo.

Chavela Vargas Honored With Google Doodle

Chris Crum — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:34:53 +0000

Google is celebrating the birthday of Costa Rican-born Mexican singer Chavela Vargas with a doodle on its homepage in Mexico.

She was apparently known best for her rendition of Mexican rancheras.

Here’s a look at Google’s knowledge panel for Vargas:

Here, you can see a performance:

India’s First Passenger Train Journey Celebrated With Google Doodle

Chris Crum — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:27:07 +0000

Google is running a doodle on its homepage in India today, celebrating the 160th anniversary of India’s first passenger train journey.

On April 16, 1853, the first passenger train service went between bori Bunder in Mumbai and Thane, covering a distance of 24 kilometers (21 miles), hauled by three locomotives, Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan, according to T. Stanley Babu’s “A shining testimony of progress” (as cited on Wikipedia).

According to the article, “This was soon followed by opening of the first passenger railway line in North India between Allahabad and Kanpur on March 3, 1859.”

On Monday, Google ran a worldwide doodle honoring mathematics pioneer Leonhard Euler.

Leonhard Euler, Mathematics Pioneer, Honored with Google Doodle

Josh Wolford — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:06:36 +0000

Today, Google is honoring Leonhard Euler, the Swiss mathematician known for his prolific works in many mathematical fields, including calculus and many areas of physics.

Euler is known for introducing most modern mathematical terminology and notation.

Euler was born on April 15th, 1707 in Basel, Switzerland to a pastor and a pastor’s daughter. In his early life, Euler studied under famed mathematician Johann Bernoulli and entered the University of Basel at the age of 13. He received his Master of Philosophy just three years later after a dissertation on Descartes and Newton.

He spent most of his adult life in St. Petersburg, Russia and in Berlin, Prussia. In St. Petersburg, Euler served a position in the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences’ mathematics department. He stayed in St. Petersburg from 1727 to 1741, when he left for Berlin to take up a post offered by Frederick the Great of Prussia. There is where Euler published his most important work: The Introductio in analysin infinitorum (1748), which was about mathematical functions, and the Institutiones calculi differentialis (1755) on differential calculus.

Euler is considered the most important mathematician of his era and one of the most important mathematicians of all time. He worked in nearly every field of mathematics, including algebra, geometry, calculus,and number theory. He also worked in some areas of physics.

Euler is the only man to have two mathematical numbers named after him. “Euler’s Number” in calculus (e), and the Euler-Mascheroni Constant (γ).

Euler was also known for his work in fluid dynamics, mechanics, and astronomy, one of the most prolific mathematicians of all time, Euler’s collected works fill dozens of volumes.

Maria Sibylla Merian Google Doodle Comes To The U.S.

Chris Crum — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:47:43 +0000

As previously reported, Google began showing a doodle in honor of naturalist and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian in parts of the world where it was already April 2nd. Now that the date has changed in the rest of the world, including here in the U.S., the doodle has made it to a larger audience, putting Google in the spotlight once again after its day of April Fools’ jokes.

The doodle celebrates Merian’s birthday, as she was born on April 2nd, 1647 in Frankfurt, Germany. She died on January 13, 1717 in Amsterdam.

Here’s what Google’s Knowledge Graph result looks like for Merian:

Merian published three collections of engravings of plants before turning her studies to insects. According to Wikipedia’s history of her, she kept her own live specimens, and illustrated the metamorphosis stage in various species. As the article points out, this was at a time when insects were largely thought of as “beasts of the devil”.

If you click over to Google’s Image results, you can peruse a plethora of Merian’s beautiful illustrations.