Eight-Year-Old’s Design Wins Google Contest

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: December 12, 2012 (Issue # 1739)

GOOGLE.COM The winning doodle design features a samovar, a nesting doll and a bear.

MOSCOW — A drawing by an 8-year-old resident of a small town in the south of the country depicting national symbols like a nesting doll and samovar was chosen Monday to be the logo for Google.ru.

The drawing, by Pyotr Alexeyev, of Belgorod, was chosen by the Internet giant from more than 5,000 works sent by children across Russia who participated in a contest announced by the company earlier this year.

Participants aged from 6 to 17 were asked to send their doodles — drawings devoted to various holidays or significant historical events that Google places on its home page — depicting traditions of Russia or any of the country’s cities.

The winning doodle, devoted to Alexeyev’s hometown, 670 kilometers south of Moscow, depicts the search engine’s name drawn on a piece of birch bark. A traditional Russian samovar and a wooden nesting doll form the logo’s letters. The other symbol in the doodle is a brown bear holding a tub of honey.

As a reward, the boy received a tablet computer and a trip to Google headquarters in the United States with his family, the company said in a statement. Google will also provide equipment for his school’s computer class.

The search engine uses doodles by professional artists to tell users about significant historical dates, the company’s staff artist, Sophia Foster-Dimino, told RIA-Novosti earlier this year.

The doodle posted Monday on the British and German versions of Google was devoted to the 197th birthday of British mathematician Ada Lovelace, known as the world’s first computer programmer.