We gave you a heads-up about this yesterday, and now we have the details: Doodle 4 Google, the annual competition that invites schoolkids from grades K-12 to create a logo for Google.com, starts accepting registrations today until March 2, with submissions postmarked by March 16. This year's theme: answer the question, "What I'd like to do someday."
The winning creation will be on the search engine's homepage May 20, where it has the potential of being viewed by the 100 million people who pull up the page every day. The winner also receives a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 technology grant for their school.
Each student is allowed to submit one doodle, going the old-school route of drawing on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. This year, Google also lifts its caps on how many doodles each school, After School Program, or parent can submit.
Google also announced these changes to the competition:
Parents Can Register Their Kids: This year, based on your feedback, we are expanding the contest. Now, in addition to schools, parents and legal guardians can directly register their K-12 students in the contest and submit their doodles. Check with your child’s school or After School Programs first to see if they are participating, since we only allow one entry per student. As always, public, private and home schools can register on behalf of their students.After School Programs: We are working with two After School Programs: Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Girl Scouts of the USA to register students.No Cap On Doodles Per School: There is no cap on how many doodles each school, After School Program, or family can send in. Just remember, only one doodle per child.A Variety Of Guest Judges: This year, a group of guest judges, including Whoopi Goldberg,Actress/Comedian/TV Talk Show Host, Jim Davis, Creator of "Garfield", and Evan Lysacek, Gold Medalist for Ice Skating, and several other well known cartoonists, animators and illustrators will help judge the contest and attend the final awards ceremony to personally congratulate our winners.
Participants can find out more information here, but these are the basics:
Judging will focus on these grade groups: K-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12.
Design Guidelines The student doodle should be presented on a white, landscape sheet of 8.5" x 11" inch paper.Teachers, Parents, and After School Program representatives should download the Google logo template here.The Google logo in the student doodle should be clearly visible and recognizable.The student doodle should be done in pencil, crayon, felt tip, paint or by using computer drawing or design software.We do not accept entries that use additional materials to create 3D effects.While we encourage your students or children to use the work of Dennis Hwang, our original doodler or other previous Doodle artists and winners as inspiration, we remind participants not to recreate or plagiarize previous designs.We keep all the original artwork and do not send it back; if you want a copy of your student or child’s doodle, make a color copy of it before you mail it in.
While the contest is open to kids as young as kindergarteners and as old as high school seniors, little kids shouldn't be discouraged — last year's winner was Missouri third-grader Makenzie Melton, beat out 33,000 other submissions with "Rainforest Habitat," (see image above) which appeared on Google.com on May 27.
Google will also partner with the Whitney Museum of American Art for the competition and formal exhibit of the 40 Regional Finalists.
Last year, the four winners were feted in grand style, with an event at the Google New York office a celebration at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which carried an exhibition of the 40 regional winners. Their day in the Big Apple also included "doodle classes with our doodle team and the opportunity to meet some of this year’s expert jurors who helped judge this year’s final doodles around the theme 'If I Could Do Anything, I Would...'"
Year-round, there's a bounty of creative inspiration for the contest. Check out the logos from past years, including the most recent Martin Luther King Jr. holiday doodle, the December holiday season, Thanksgiving and Veterans Day.
The doodle team has created over 300 doodles for Google.com in the U.S., while the world has seen more than 700 designs.
