Children from 6 to 18 years old can participate in the Doodle 4 Google , which is being organized for the first time in Greece, to redesign the Google logo so that it reflects their own Greece. The doodle will appear on google.gr for 24 hours on May 14, 2013.
- As Google Greece explains, doodles are the pleasant, sometimes funny, and spontaneous changes to the Google logo, which are made to honor national holidays, great personalities from different fields, artists, scientists, people who have left their mark in history or to comment on contemporary events. You can see doodles at www.google.com/doodles
The history of doodles
In 1998, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to let users know that they would be away from home while they were attending the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. So they placed a drawing of a figure behind the second “o” of the Google logo, informing users that they were “out of the office.” Despite their initial surprise, users enthusiastically embraced the change to the classic Google logo and the “playful” mood of the then-new company.
In 2000, Larry and Sergey appointed webmaster Dennis Hwang as head of the doodle team, and twelve years later, the initial team has grown into a large department of illustrators and engineers (doodlers), who have created over 1500 doodles for many different countries, including the Greek ones for Odysseas Elytis, Theodoros Angelopoulos and the national election doodle.
At www.google.com/doodles you can see all the doodles that have been uploaded from time to time around the world, make your own music with Les Paul's doodle guitar, play Pac Man or watch the adventures of the Star Trek heroes.
Google sells thousands of items with the doodles printed on them in the Doodle Store, such as mugs, t-shirts, posters, and more.
Information about the competition in Greece
“Doodle 4 Google” is a creative competition for children aged 6-18, open to all primary, middle and high school students throughout Greece.
The winning artist will also win a Chromebook, a Wacom tablet for digital art/drawing, a T-shirt with their doodle and a trip to Athens to attend the grand prize announcement ceremony on May 13, 2013. The 60 runners-up will also win special prizes. In addition, the winner’s school will receive 30 Chromebooks.
Competition process
Children can take part in the competition through their school and the submission of doodles can be done by mail and must be accompanied by the covering letter available on the website https://www.google.gr/doodle4google/.
- The deadline for submitting doodles is March 29th.
- The terms of participation are analyzed at https://www.google.gr/doodle4google/terms.html
In the first stage of the competition, a team from Google Greece, together with the Doodle 4 Google Greece jury, consisting of personalities from the arts, media and education, will select the 60 best doodles (15 from 4 age groups).
The selected 60 doodles will then be posted on the Doodle 4 Google website (https://www.google.gr/doodle4google/) and will be evaluated by the public through online voting, which will take place from April 15 to May 7, 2013. Each visitor to the website will have the right to vote for one doodle from each category. Based on the results of the online voting, 4 national finalists will be selected, one from each age group.
The winner of the competition will be one of four national finalists, selected by the Google team, and announced at the awards ceremony on Monday, May 13, 2013.
The Doodle 4 Google Greece jury consists of:
- Eva Stamati – Director of the Museum of Greek Children's Art
- Michalis Georgiou – eGraphic designer, Head of graphic design department at Vakalos College
- Vangelis Iliopoulos – Author and president of the Greek section of IBBY – Greek Children's Book Circle
- Irida Kritikou – Art Historian and independent curator
- Vasilis Charalambopoulos – Actor
- Maria Kavogianni– Actress
The competition is under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
