Google Doodles — How It Started and Who Designs Them

People frequently using Google Search would regularly notice that Google's logo changes on special and historical events like Juneteenth, New Year's Day, and Fourth of July.

These creative logo designs, or Doodles as Google calls them, bring a breath of fresh air to Google Search's familiar yet sometimes monotonous homepage. Once you notice something different with Google's logo, you'll immediately know an event worth celebrating is happening on that day.

However, why did Google start creating Doodles in the first place, and how does it choose who gets to design its logo for that day?

From Humble Beginnings

Interestingly enough, the first Doodle Google ever made didn't even celebrate anything. According to Google Doodles' About page, the first unofficial Doodle came to be when company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin placed a stick figure behind the second "o" in Google to show they attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada in 1998.

It was at that point when both founders got a "Eureka" moment - the one Google Doodles owes its existence. Page and Brin came up with the idea of decorating Google's logo to celebrate notable events.

Little did they know they would soon have their chance to showcase Google's first-ever Doodle. Two years later, the founders asked Dennis Hwang, a Google intern at the time, to produce a doodle for France's Bastille Day.

Hwang's Doodle for Bastille Day 2000 consists of the French flag atop the "l" while red and blue fireworks hover above Google's first four letters. The French words for "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" are located just beneath the first three letters.

Users praised the Doodle so much that Page and Brin appointed Hwang as Google's chief doodler. Since then, doodles started showing up on the Google homepage regularly.

While the first few Doodles celebrated well-known events, Google eventually expanded its scope to celebrate a wide array of events and anniversaries with a Doodle - from the Birthday of John James Audubon to the ice cream sundae.

As of press time, Google has published over 5,000 Doodles for its various homepages worldwide. Their popularity reached a point that Brin filed a patent for them to protect the company's practice of spiffing up their logo for special dates and events, per Stikky Media.

Who Gets To Design Them?

While Hwang became Google's chief (and sole) doodler for some years, Google's recent doodles are now the responsibility of a team Google specifically created to spoof the company logo for special events. While they are mostly responsible for many of the Doodles people see, the company also works with guest artists like Laura Freeman, who created 2023's Juneteenth Google Doodle.

These guest artists could've come from the approximately 7,000 art submissions Google receives from users per year, per Google. Unfortunately, only a few hundred user-made artworks get featured on Google's homepage.

Nonetheless, Google's Doodles allow not only artists but also users that visit Google Search every day to commemorate special events through art and technology.