Over the past 22 years, Google’s logo illustrators, or what they call “Doodlers,” have made over four thousand doodles for their homepages across the globe. The logos they create acknowledge anniversaries, holidays, events, and the lives of famous people whether they are dead or alive. 

Their first Doodle was created in 1998, the same year Google was established, when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had an idea to incorporate their presence at the “Burning Man Festival” through the logo. Though fairly simple, they decided to put a stick man behind the second “O” and it was meant for a comical message about being “out of office.”

A few years later in 2000, the founders asked webmaster Dennis Hwang to make a Doodle for Bastille Day, a day of celebration for France. The users of Google at the time liked it so much that Dennis was made the “Chief Doodler” and the logo illustrations started to pop up more and more on the homepage. 

In 2008, the first person to win the “Doodle 4 Google” challenge was anonymous, but we do know that they’re from Australia. The “Doodle 4 Google” contest was created for students K-12 an opportunity to display their artwork, along with a chance to win scholarships and tech packages for the student’s school.

In 2010, Google stepped up their game and released their first ever animated logo dedicated to the world renowned physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Soon after their release of their first animated logo, they created their first interactive logo dedicated to Pac-Man for the game’s thirtieth anniversary.