Fresh from Google Singapore. A few months ago, a Doodle 4 Google event was held and now, the top 50 finalists are selected. It is time now for the public to vote for their favorite Doodles. BTW, this doodle competition asks young Singaporeans to reinvent the Google logo based on the theme ‘Our Singapore.’
Pick your very own Doodle 4 Google Singapore winners!
The competition received an overwhelming response of nearly 30,000 doodle entries from over 400 schools
The Singapore public can vote online from now to April 23 for their favourite doodles from 50 shortlisted finalists across five age groups
The overall winning doodle will be displayed on National Day 2010 on the Google Singapore homepage for 24 hours
Singapore, 12 April, 2010 – Google Singapore is proud to announce the top 50 finalists of the country’s inaugural ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition and now invites the local public to vote for their favorite doodles from the shortlisted entries. The doodles can be viewed at www.google.com.sg/doodle4google and public voting runs from today until 23 April 2010.
Google was overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from the local schools and students with nearly 30,000 doodle submissions from over 400 schools. Derek Callow, Head of Marketing for Google Southeast Asia, said, “Based on our experience in other parts of the world, we were pleasantly surprised to receive so many doodle entries from preschools to tertiary institutions, for a country the size of Singapore! The students’ artwork really showed their exceptional talent and we were blown away by the designs. We also have to thank the schools, teachers and parents for supporting the students to doodle their artistic impressions of ‘Our Singapore’.”
More details and resources, including a doodle gallery featuring the top 50 finalists, are available on the Doodle 4 Google Singapore site at www.google.com.sg/doodle4google. Also available on the site is an online map of all the participating schools, so voters can click on the colored pins to see the age group and number of doodle submissions for each school or click on the colored stars to see an image of each of the 50 finalist doodles by school location.
The five age group winners voted by the public, as well as the national winner chosen by Google, will be announced at an awards ceremony at the end of April to be attended by all 50 finalists, their parents and teachers. The national winner’s doodle will appear on Google.com.sg for 24 hours on Singapore’s National Day 2010 to be viewed by millions of Internet users.
Check out the Doodle Submissions Map on http://www.google.com.sg/doodle4google/. Voters can click on the colored pins to see the age group & number of doodle submissions for each participating school or click on the colored stars to see the 50 finalist doodles by school location.
Celebrating and rewarding Singapore’s young creative minds
An expert judging panel consisting of Lee Chee Chew (creator of comic strips “CHEW ON IT”), members of the artist group Vertical Submarine (winner of President’s Young Talents 2009 award) and a representative from the Ministry of Education selected the finalists – the top 10 doodles from each of the five age groups designed by students from 4 to 19 years old.
“My judging criteria was creativity – I was looking out for how innovative the students were in depicting the theme ‘Our Singapore’ using the Google logo,” said Mr. Puvan Ariaratnam, Deputy Director of National Education & Planning from the Ministry of Education. Mr. Ariaratnam also added that the entries were very inspiring because they represented how students felt about Singapore as their home and country.
While the Merlion was the most popular Singaporean icon among the doodle entries, there were many other interesting elements that cropped up including symbols of local festivities, celebrities, tourist attractions and the students’ visions of the future Singapore. Students showcased their creative flair through various mediums ranging from crayons and color pencils to computer software.
Lee Chee Chew said: “Because of my line of work as a comic artist, one of the key things I was looking out for was wit and humour. Throughout the judging process, I came across some designs that were pretty clever in making use of the letters within the Google logo – one good example was the use of the no smoking and no jaywalking signs to replace the ‘Os’, while another had a crab holding a chilli and made to look like the letter ‘G’.”
Joshua Yang, Justin Loke and Fiona Koh of Vertical Submarine were very impressed by the effort put in by the young contestants. “We saw many memorable entries, many of them are really good and probably better than what we can come up with,” they said. The trio liked seeing the contestants’ Singaporean interpretations of the Google logo, such as depicting the letters as clothes hanging from a bamboo pole, like what many Singaporeans do in their homes. They added, “We picked the winning doodles based on the amount of effort that was put in and the attention the doodlers paid to the details of their drawings.”
Meeting the top 50 finalists and unveiling their doodles at Marina Square
On the morning of April 15, 2010, the top 50 finalists will also unveil their doodles at a special ceremony to the Singapore public to vote for their favourite doodles. This unveiling ceremony will take place at Groove Nation Foyer, 3rd Level (across Starbucks), Marina Square Shopping Mall and the doodle showcase will be displayed from April 15-18, 2010. Be sure to join us!
Top 10 Fun Facts about the doodle contest
- Total number of doodle entries received: nearly 30,000
- Total number of schools who participated: over 400
- School with the highest number of entries: Elias Park Primary School, with 1,194 submissions
- Age group with the highest number of entries: 13-16 with 11,379 submissions
- Total number of hours taken to review all the doodle entries: 72 hours
- Youngest doodler: 4 years old
- Average time taken to create a doodle: 1 hour
- Most popular method of creating the doodles: Colour pencils
- Most common Singapore symbol used in the doodles: Merlion
- Better late than never: more than half of the doodles were received just one week before the closing date!
About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.google.com.sg.
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