CONTEST
March 13, 2009
Attention Doodlers!
Google invites kids across the nation to design a new logo for its homepage
Do you love to draw? If so, then Google wants your help! The online giant is inviting students across the nation to enter the Doodle 4 Google competition. The contest asks kids to use their scribbling skills to create a new design for the familiar Google logo. The top doodle will be spotlighted on the search site's homepage on May 21.
Teachers must register their classrooms to enter the contest by March 17. Doodles are due on March 31. For official contest rules, visit google.com/doodle4google.
 |  Last year's winning doodle, "Up in the Clouds," was created by sixth-grader Grace Moon of Castro Valley, California. |
This year's theme is "What I Wish for the World." Students should brainstorm their hopes for the future and use these ideas as inspiration for their doodles. For example, if your biggest wish is that everyone can go to college for free, how would you illustrate that?
Google hopes that the contest will encourage young people to think about the world around them. "With the country on the brink of change, it seemed to us like a timely question to be asking the youth of today," organizers say. "We're really excited to see the range of creative interpretations that are submitted."
The grand-prize winner will receive a $15,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Google office in New York City. A $25,000 technology grant will be awarded to the winner's school. The top 40 regional doodles will also be showcased in a national exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City.
Doodle BeginningsThe first-ever Google doodle appeared on the company's homepage in 1999. It was created by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They were attending a festival in Nevada and wanted to tell the website's users where they were. The doodles have been a hit ever since.
Google's chief doodler is webmaster Dennis Hwang. He has been creating logo designs marking holidays and world events since his days as an intern in 2000. Here are a few helpful hints from Hwang on how to get started on your doodle.
1) Make sure your design complements the shape of the letters in the Google logo, but don't let that restrict your creativity.
2) Experiment with different media to see which one works best for your design (you can even create your doodle on your PC or Mac).
3) Don't over-complicate your design - simpler images often have the most impact.
4) Remember that your design could end up on the Google homepage, so imagine how it will look on a computer screen.
5) To find inspiration around the "What I Wish for the World" theme, try thinking about the future and how you would like it to differ from the present.
6) Remember to use color well and think about how it interacts with a white background.
7) Avoid commercial or copyrighted images.
8) Think outside the box - try to create a doodle that's different from your classmates and hasn't been done before.
9) Feel free to use the space behind and in front of the Google letters, but try to maintain your design's overall balance.
10) Have fun! Doodle 4 Google is all about creativity and enjoying designing fun things. Think about how you want to change the world.
