Vive La Différence – Google Doodle

Hello. Happy bank holiday to my UK readers.

I’m back from berlin…  unfortunately i never got there. On friday, a plane’s engine caught fire and had to do an emergency landing at heathrow. Subsequently, they had to shut 1 runway for most of the day and decided to cancel ALL short-haul flights until late afternoon. I was caught up in those cancellations. Happy that everyone on that plane was safe BUT hope that BA feel ashamed that they failed to notify us passengers. Sending a text out can’t possibly be that difficult. Obviously for BA it is! I spent hours getting to heathrow and back only to be told to leave the airport!

I’m sorry to have missed the hive13 but am extra excited that they announced another one in october in copenhagen. Yay!

I’m delighted to feature another dose of vive la différence. Today we have the lovely Judith de Graaff, a dutch graphic designer living in france. She’s the author of joelix and has been blogging since 2006. Judith has just returned from berlin and unfortunately we didn’t get to hang out and play together. The good news is we’re playing together here today!

For new readers:

The concept: each month I will invite one blogger. They will create and showcase one image/vignette. There are 20 themes and 20 objects for my guest to choose from. They choose 1 theme and up to 3 objects. I will then create an image/vignette based on their choice. Everyone has free reign on how to create the image. It can be simple photography, a drawing, a collage, a hand-painted image, a styled table top… the choice is yours! The fun part is that you, my readers, will see 2 versions inspired by the same subject matter. There is no right or wrong. There’s just ‘different’.

Judith chose the theme: google doodle with the objects: toys and a colour. Here’s her take on this.

Exactly 15 years ago (today!), this sunflower yellow color entered my life. I met my boyfriend, now husband, who owned this huge and comfy Rolf Benz couch in a pretty sunflower yellow. In our homes in Holland and soon afterwards in France, we decorated our living room around this comfortable piece of furniture and started to gather different objects in the same yellow shade. And today this small collection is forming a Google Doodle, or actually a few different ones.

I remember the first Google Doodle I ever saw and I thought it was a great idea to show the work of wonderful creatives to a global audience. My favorite? There are so many great ones! But I really enjoyed the Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), and the HR Hertz’s 155th birthday doodles. The Google Doodles are a perfect example of a logo being all about “identity” and not about “identical”. Thanks Tina for having me today!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s my version.

A few years ago I went to a talk to the Google offices in Victoria, London. It was all about the Google doodles, how they started and how it’s grown into its own department within Google. “Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.”

The doodles originated in 1998 when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. In 2000, a guy named Dennis, an intern at that time, was appointed Google’s chief doodler.

The creation of doodles is now the responsibility of a team of highly talented illustrators and engineers, also known as ‘doodlers’. There have been over 1000 doodles around the world. The doodle selection process celebrates events and anniversaries which identify with Google’s love for innovation.

The best part, we, the public could influence the decision of which doodle they create next. Submit your idea. Email proposals@google.com with your suggestions. Just don’t wait for a reply! Apparently they get hundreds of emails on a daily basis.

This is my little attempt to pay homage to the Google doodle – you often brighten up my day. Thank you!

I want to thank Judith for the the fantastic yellow inspiration, all the hard work AND for teaching me how to do animated gifs in photoshop. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, so am very happy Judith chose this theme. Merci beaucoup. Bisous!