The Man behind the Google 1)Doodle 谷歌徽标背后的男人
文字难度：★★★
Ever wonder who creates the beautiful logos which you see daily on the Google homepage commemorating holidays and events? It’s Dennis Hwang, the official logo designer for Google, who creates those Google Doodles.
每天在谷歌主页看到那些纪念一个个节假日和事件的漂亮徽标,你是否曾对其背后的设计者感到好奇?设计那些谷歌徽标的人就是黄正穆(韩裔美国人,英文名为“丹尼斯”),谷歌的正牌徽标设计师。
Dennis Hwang’s drawings are viewed by nearly 180 million people a day. A daily pleasure for many Internet searchers, his ever-changing logos give the search giant’s homepage even more appeal. He’s one of the most important 2)graphic designers in the business world. And yet the 3)mild-mannered29-year-old 4)keeps a low profile—and devotes only a small fraction of his time to his art.
每天,有近1.8亿人看得到黄正穆为谷歌设计的徽标。每天,他那些变化多样的徽标都给众多因特网搜索者以赏心悦目之感,也使得谷歌这搜索巨人的主页变得更具吸引力。他是商界最重要的平面设计师之一。然而,这位29岁,文质彬彬的绘图师一向低调——在设计方面他其实只放了一小部分时间。
Hwang is the Google doodler, the man whose hand-drawn alterations of the search engine’s logo commemorate holidays, artists’ birthdays, and other random events that the company 5)deems important. In June, 2004, a French astronomer sent Hwang an e-mail explaining that within 24 hours Venus would pass in front of the sun—the first time it had happened in 122 years. Quickly, Hwang 6)mocked up a version of the Google logo where the second “O” had become a sun with a black spot on it representing Venus. He showed the design to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders, who liked it. “We are a 7)geeky company, so it was an easy sell,” says Hwang. “Within a few hours, I had posted the doodle and we were 8)alerting the world to this cool event.”
黄正穆是谷歌徽标的设计者,他为谷歌这个搜索引擎设计各式手绘图案,纪念假日、艺术家的生日以及其他一些谷歌看重的事件。2004年6月,一位法国天文学家给黄正穆发了一封邮件,向其解释,在24小时内,金星将运行至太阳前方——这可是122年一遇的事件。于是,黄正穆迅速设计了一个模拟此场景的谷歌徽标——谷歌英文名称中的第二个“O”变成了太阳,它上面的一个黑点代表金星。他把这个设计拿给谷歌的两位创始人拉里·佩奇和谢尔盖·布林看,他俩都很喜欢。“我们可是个‘科技怪杰’公司,这样的主题一下子就能达成共识,”黄正穆说道,“几个小时后,我就把这个徽标挂上了谷歌主页,提醒全世界关注这一奇妙事件。”
A former art-computer science double-major at Stanford University, Hwang is also now Google’s Webmaster. He devotes 80% to 90% of his time to managing the team of 30 people who maintain Google’s web pages in more than 100 languages. His doodles, about 50 a year, are9)dashed off using an electronic tablet that translates his scrawlings onto his screen.
黄正穆毕业于美国斯坦福大学,拥有艺术和计算机科学双学位,现在他同时还是谷歌的网站管理员。他把80%到90%的时间用来管理一个30人的团队,这个团队维持着谷歌100多种语言版本主页的运作。他一年大概设计50个徽标,借助电子平板将速画的手绘作品转换成电子格式,显示在其屏幕上。
Hwang’s 10)whimsical designs serve a serious business function. Google’s multi-colored Google logo is just as important a branding device as Apple’s apple. As Google 11)balloons into a powerful and controversial tech 12)behemoth, the doodles humanize the company. With their rough, hand-drawn look, they 13)hark back to the company’s experimental, 14)nimble, intellectual, and fanciful startup legacy. “The doodles let Google wink at their audience,” says Bill Gardner, founder of LogoLounge.com, a site that covers trends in corporate logo design.
黄正穆的这些古怪设计有着一个重要的商业用途。谷歌的彩色徽标作为一种品牌工具,有如苹果品牌的“苹果”一般重要。随着谷歌发展壮大为强大而具有争议性的科技巨擘,这些徽标使公司变得人性化。这些粗略且具手绘风格的徽标,让人想起谷歌最初作为新兴科技公司那份玩票性,那种灵活机智、天马行空的氛围传承。“谷歌借助其徽标向其受众俏皮眨眼,”追踪关注企业徽标设计潮流的网站LogoLounge.com的创建者比尔·加德纳说道。
Born in Knoxville, Tenn., Hwang also spent part of his youth living in a Seoul suburb. As a junior at Stanford in 2000, his 15)residential adviser asked him to be an assistant Webmaster at a then-little-known search engine startup named Google. He started as a summer intern and then worked 40 hours a week his senior year while completing his undergraduate degree.
黄正穆出生于美国田纳西州诺克斯维尔市,他年少时也曾在韩国首尔郊区度过一段时光。2000年,他在斯福坦大学念大三,他的驻校导师让他到一个当时还少有人知的名为“谷歌”的搜索引擎担任网站管理助理。他最初只是在暑假期间到里面实习,接着,在念大四时,他每周在谷歌工作40个小时,同时还得完成他的大学学业。
By that time, Google had already experimented with doodles. The first one was done by Brin and Page in 1999 when they left for the 16)Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Hwang started doodling almost by accident. “It was simply because I was an art major in a very small company,” he recalls. His first design honored 17)Bastille Day in 2000.
那时,谷歌已经开始尝试设计徽标了。第一个徽标是布林和佩奇于1999年前往在内华达沙漠举办的“火人节”前设计出来的。黄正穆起先设计徽标纯属偶然。“因为在这个很小的公司里,我是读美术专业出身的,就是这么简单。”他回忆道。2000年,他设计出了第一个徽标,是为纪念巴士底日而设计的。
To plan his doodles, Hwang meets quarterly with a team of vice-presidents and creative directors. People now expect a doodle on certain holidays, like Thanksgiving. “We look at the calendar and muse about what is happening around the world, interesting events or birthdays of people who have contributed something significant.” Once he drafts a doodle, he shows it to Page and Brin. “Holding up my mockups and then holding my breath while Larry and Sergey do their ‘18)thumbs-up, 19)thumbs-down’ emperor thing is never boring,” wrote Hwang on a Google blog. “I love the fact that my little 20)niche within this company turned out to be something so cool and creative and, well, Google-y.”
为了计划他那些徽标设计,黄正穆每季都会与一个由副总裁和创意总监组成的团队开会。大家如今会期待在某些节日里,比如感恩节,看到相应的徽标。“我们会看日历,想想世界当下的时政大事、趣事,以及那些有卓越贡献的伟人的生日。”每当画好徽标的草图,他便会拿去给佩奇和布林看。“举起我的设计稿,然后屏息听着拉里和谢尔盖像‘皇上’一般赞许抑或否定,我从不觉得厌烦。”黄正穆在谷歌博客上写道,“在这个公司里,我那小小的特长原来可以那么酷,那么有创意,那么具有‘谷歌’风格,我实在很高兴。”
Hwang also gets many ideas from enthusiastic users like the French astronomer. In 2005 librarians around the country lobbied Hwang for a 21)National Library Week doodle. After he created one, he received a big 22)care package complete with a librarian 23)action figure that 24)shushed.
黄正穆也从热情的谷歌用户(比如那个法国天文学家)那获得了很多想法。2005年,美国各地的图书管理员游说黄正穆给美国国家图书馆周设计一个徽标。他完成设计后,就收到了一个很大的爱心包裹,里面还有一个对人摆出“嘘”姿势的图书管理员人偶公仔。
Some doodles draw strong responses. An early design for Thanksgiving featured an 25)innocuous turkey 26)raking leaves. But it drew 27)vitriolic responses from Brazil, Australia, and other parts of the Southern 28)Hemisphere from users who accused Hwang of being Northern Hemisphere-centric. “That one taught me to think more broadly,” he said. Another logo, for 29)Michelangelo’s birthday, proved to be a little too 30)risque for some users. “A lot of businessmen were startled when they 31)pulled up the home page in client meetings and there was the nude David.”
有些徽标则引起强烈的反响。他早期曾为感恩节设计过一个徽标——主角是只在用耙子耙着树叶的无伤大雅的火鸡。但这个徽标遭到了巴西、澳大利亚以及其他南半球谷歌用户的尖酸回应,他们指责他以北半球为中心。“那件事教我要更全面地思考,”他说道。另一个为纪念米开朗基罗的生日而设计的徽标则在一些谷歌用户看来有点过于淫秽。“许多商界人士会见客户时打开谷歌主页,一看到裸体大卫,都给吓了一跳。”
In 2003, he wove the double 32)helix into Google’s logo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA. In 2007, he met James Watson, one of the scientists who discovered DNA. “He asked me for a signed print of the Google DNA logo,” says Hwang, his voice 33)brimming with enthusiasm. “I couldn’t believe it. My drawing had come full circle.”
2003年,他在谷歌徽标中运用了双螺旋设计来庆祝人类发现DNA50周年。2007年,他会见了詹姆士·沃森——发现DNA的其中一个科学家。“他问我要了一张印有谷歌DNA徽标设计且有我签名的图画。”黄正穆说道,他的声音里满溢着热情。“太令人难以置信了,我的画回到给我灵感的DNA发现者那儿去了。”
