4.4. THE GOOGLE LOGO
Google's public image is further enhanced by the delightfully simple crayon-colored logo and its placement on its spare home page. The logo makes Google seem approachable and friendly.
Reminiscent of the letters on children's building blocks, it quickly evolved into one of the world's most recognizable corporate insignias. Google's logo recognition is right up there with Nike's swoosh, NBC's peacock, and Coca Cola's red-and-white scripted name.
Brin and Page were toying with logo ideas, struggling to come up with a symbol that expressed the emerging Google culture. They asked Ruth Kedar, a graphic designer and assistant professor at Stanford, to produce some prototypes. "I had no idea at the time that Google would become as ubiquitous as it is today, or that their success would be of such magnitude," Kedar says.[]
Kedar, who was born in Brazil but grew up and was educated in Israel, was impressed that the young men with a chancy startup insisted on paying for the logo. She only wishes she had taken payment in Google shares.
The logo as we know it today gives the impression that it was a quick-and-easy sketch-up, whereas in fact it went through many changes in the design process. Kedar began with a first try that Sergey had created with free design software.
"Someone who sees the logo for the first time doesn't necessarily need to absorb all the layers and considerations behind every decision," said Kedar. "It's better for him to discover something new every ...
Get Google Speaks: Secrets of the World's Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.