“Sergei turned to marketing manager Susan Wojcicki, who found illustrator Ian Marsden and put him to work.
In May 2000, Ian created the first Google doodle. It featured—surprise, surprise—aliens making off with our logo.”
The Very First Google Doodles by Ian David Marsden
As a professional artist, illustrator, cartoonist and character designer, one of the highlights of my career so far is certainly that I happen to be the very first Google Doodle artist. 🙂
It was tremendous fun and I was totally delighted when Google contacted me to be their first artist. Back then I was working out of a one bedroom studio in Santa Monica, California and we were trying to keep our little two year old baby in diapers, so the whole magical world of the internet in it’s very first pioneer days was a wonderful and thrilling place to be and I was honored and thrilled that I was able to actively participate with Google and some of the other projects I helped realize back then. Even in those early days it was clear to me (and most other people) that Google was headed for greatness. 🙂
Google MentalPlex Technology
1st Google Doodle Series - Google logo gets abducted by aliens
1st Google Doodle Series - Google logo gets abducted by aliens
1st Google Doodle Series - Google logo gets abducted by aliens
1st Google Doodle Series - Google logo gets abducted by aliens
1st Google Doodle Series - Google logo gets abducted by aliens
4th of July 2000 Google Doodle Series
4th of July 2000 Google Doodle Series
4th of July 2000 Google Doodle Series
4th of July 2000 Google Doodle Series
Sydney Summer Olympics - Torch
Sydney Summer Olympics - Kayak
Sydney Summer Olympics - Gymnastics
Sydney Summer Olympics - Archery
Sydney Summer Olympics - Track and Field
Sydney Summer Olympics - Diving
Sydney Summer Olympics - Cycling
Sydney Summer Olympics - Weights
Sydney Summer Olympics - Soccer
Sydney Summer Olympics - Basketball
Sydney Summer Olympics - Closing Ceremony
Happy New Year 2001!
The first Illustrations I made for Google, were shown on April Fool’s Day 2000. Google launched the amazing MentalPlex Technologywhere you could just think of what you were searching for and Google would find it. I created a little character and made some animated GIFs to explain how it worked.
My first ‘Google Doodle’ series was also the very first actual Google Doodle – namely the Alien abduction of the Google logo which happened in May 2000.
The third series of Google Doodles I designed were the Olympic Doodles for the Summer Olympics in Sydney – Google Doodles Summer Olympics in Sydney with the little ‘Kangaroodle” I also created for Google and for the event. I have never received more fan mail than I did during the days these olympic google doodles were online. Hundreds, probably thousands of e-mails from all over the world. All of them positive and friendly. 🙂