Love doodles? Google has today announced the first ever ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition in Malaysia, open to school students. Malaysia joins the ranks of several countries in the world where children are invited to create doodles based on a theme.
Google Doodles are much-loved in cyberspace where the fun-loving tech giant celebrates holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous people who have helped shaped world history. Malaysia is no stranger to Google Doodles, where the rakyat has had the opportunity to see such celebratory icons such as Merdeka Day, the 2013 Elections and Yasmin Ahmad’s 56th birthday, just to name a few.
Doodles are usually created by Google’s very own doodlers in house (what a job to have!) but in this case of Doodle 4 Google, doodles are open for public submission.
The competition is themed ‘Malaysia to me is…’ in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014, and open to all Malaysian primary and secondary school students within four age categories: 7-9, 10-12, 13-15 and 16-17.
Submissions are open till 15 July, where Google will be shortlisting 20 most creative doodles and subsequently down to a final four before being reviewed by Google HQ. The ultimate winner gets bragging rights to join other non-Googlers who have designed doodles, and to have his or her creation features on google.com.my on Malaysia Day, 16 September 2014.
“When designing around the theme ‘Malaysia to me is…’ we would like students to consider what they appreciate about Malaysia and what makes this country loved by them,” Google Malaysia Country Manager Sajith Sivanandran said during his keynote.
Students are encouraged to think out of the box and create doodles that haven’t been done before.
“Most of all, we want students to have fun!” he continued.
Google Doodles had a quirky, spontaneous beginning (as you would expect from this fun-loving company). In 1998, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin placed a stick figure drawing behind the second ‘o’ in the word Google as a message to users that they were ‘out of the office’ to attend a music and art festival. And the rest, they say, is history.
Google’s creative doodle team produce hundreds of doodles per year, all around the year. Aside from celebrating international anniversaries and holidays, doodles have celebrated birthdays of renowned artists and scientists like Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci and more. Were you addicted to the Pac Man doodle? I know I was.
The closing date for Malaysia’s Doodle 4 Google contest submission is 15 July 2014. Google will be having roadshows targeting schools to promote the contest. Interested participants can also download entry forms and get more information at google.com.my/doodle4google #d4gmy
Happy doodling!
