Olympic Spirit

Google has been celebrating the 2010 Olympic Games with a series of Logos on its pages throughout the world. These Logos have been positioned on the screen against a full screen backdrop of mountains, supposed to be the mountains around Vancouver. These logos have featured the Olympic Torch before the games, a Luger probably honoring Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia, a snow boarder, and couples figure skating for Valentine’s Day. These images have some great qualities like the abstract tress in some of them and the great color scheme capturing the essence of the winter games, however I do not like that they are full screen and framed. Google has never done that before to my knowledge and I feel that take it from being a great logo to being a banner that doesn’t fit with Google’s simplistically modern design.

Carnival

Today Google Brazil celebrates the start of Carnival with a beautifully colorful logo featuring bright confetti streaming through the air in the shape of “Google.” I assume my readers know about the tradition of organized debauchery of Carnival before the start of lent from movies like Moonraker. But here are some fun facts from Wikipedia:
1) 80% of the beer in Brazil drunken over a year is consumed during carnival
2) 70% of the countries tourists come during carnival
3) The government distributes 600K condoms and launches an ad campaign to stem the spread of AIDs during carnival

Chinese Paper Cutting

Google China begins its celebration of the upcoming New Year with a Doodle showing Chinese Paper Cutting or Jianzhi. Paper cutting began in China with their invention of paper in China during the Han Dynasty and has since been used to celebrate Chinese festivals, particularly the New Year. In traditional Chinese families, paper cutting was an important skill for women to learn before they could be considered for marriage. Paper cutouts are hung on the doors and windows of houses in the days before the New Year and often have Chinese characters or lines of poetry on them. Furthermore they are red to symbolize the festive atmosphere of the holiday. This logo spectacularly captures that festive spirit with its radiant coloring and elegance.

Natsume Soseki's Birthday

Today Google Japan celebrates the birth of Natsume Soseki (9 February 1867 – 9 December 1916), the most esteemed writer from the Meiji Era. He was a scholar of English Literature and studied for several years in the United Kingdom before becoming a professor of literature at Tokyo Imperial University. Some of his most well known works were the novels Kokoro, Botchan, and I Am a Cat, which discuss the relationship between Japan and the Western Society. For 20 years between 1984 and 2004 he was featured on the 1000 yen note. The Google Logo does a great job of playing on the title of his book, “I Am a Cat,” but I feel that the smooth Google letters create too much contrast against what appear to be hand illustrated figures. But I love the use of the paw prints.

Sami National Day

Today Google in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway celebrates Sami National Day, commemorating the meeting of the first Sami transnational congress in 1917. The Sami people are an indigenous ethnic group in the northern Scandinavian peninsula whose numbers range between 80 and 130 Thousand. The Sami are best known for their cultural practice of reindeer herding, a practice which only they can legally do in the Nordic countries, but have traditionally live a wilderness lifestyle of fishing and trapping. The Sami Language is part of Uralic languages, which span parts of Russia, Scandinavia, and Hungary. Sami National Day began being celebrated in 1993, after it was passed by the 15th Sami Conference. During this day the Sami Flag is flown though out the region, including in many national offices, while the Sami People unite and sing the Song of the Sami People. This Google Logo shows a traditional hat called a Four Winds hat, along with other cultural textiles, which provide a very pretty image.

Belated Posts: Chekov and Easter Island

I am sorry that I have been really busy and unable to devote the proper amount of time to developing these posts recently but I shall try to catch up the best that I can:

Anton Chekhov

On January 29th, Google Russia remembered the birthday of Anton Chekhov (January 29 1860 – July 15th 1904). Chekhov was one of the greatest Russian writers, whose best known works are the plays The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard and developing the stream of consciousness style. He was also a doctor and is quoted as saying, “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress.”1 Russia celebrated the 150th birthday of this national hero with several cultural events across the country, including a visit by President Medvedev to Taganrog, where Chekov was born2.

Tapati Rapa Nui Festival

On January 31st, Google Chile celebrated the Tapati Rapa Nui festival which takes place on Easter Island during late January and early February. This festival celebrates the passing of the Ley Pascua in 1963 which gave suffrage to the islanders. The celebration takes place in a carnival atmosphere with many dances, parades, and sporting games taking place over the whole islands. I think that this logo was beautifully as “Google” is spelled out in Rongorongo, an ancient proto-writing system found on the island.

Norman Rockwell

Today Google universally celebrates the birth of Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978), an American illustrator most known for his work for The Saturday Evening Post. His art was focused primarily on images of everyday America, such as the one found in the Google Logo, “Little Spooners” which appeared in the April 24, 1926 edition of the Post. He was very productive throughout his career, illustrating books, periodicals, Boy Scouts’ Calendars, while also painting extensively. While Rockwell’s art had great popular appeal, it was dismissed by many critics for lack of content and sentimentality. While I shall not take a stand on the quality of Rockwell’s art, I do question why Google has put it up on all its pages throughout the world for I don’t think is influence was that extensive.