14 DAY TRIAL // Google has swapped its logo today for a really special doodle that comes from the winner of the seventh annual Doodle 4 Google competition.
The contest asks children from kindergarten age, up to high school seniors to draw something special. This year, the topic was “an invention that would make the world a better place.”
The competition took place in multiple stages. Out of some 100,000 submissions, 250 were elected as state finalists, 50 as state winners and there were also 5 national age group winners.
The one that you can see today comes from 11-year-old Audrey Zhang from New York. “To make the world a better place, I invented a transformative water purifier. It takes in dirty and polluted water from rivers, lakes, and even oceans, then massively transforms the water into clean, safe and sanitary water, when humans and animals drink this water, they will live a healthier life,” the youngster said.
Google has picked this doodle in part for all the details it has. The company went a step further this year and worked with Audrey to animate the illustration. “As an animator and director for a day, she made sure we twinkled each light and cleaned the water just right and took extra care for the illustration’s dragons – about whom she is also writing a novel,” Google notes.
Titled “Back to Mother Nature,” the animation presents flowing water, a water purifier that comes with wings and a forest full of animals. There’s even a classy whale with a top hat, a boat dangling in the waves and a fisherman, as well as dozens of twinkling lights, which Google worked hard on since they were specifically asked by Audrey.
Google’s name appears in the picture as well, drawn into the scenery. The first “G” and the last three letters are made out of trees, while the middle letters are all integrated in the water purifier.
The winner of the contest went home with a $30,000 (€22,000) college scholarship and a $50,000 (€36,700) Google for Education technology grant for her school. An additional $20,000 (€14,700) were donated by Google in Audrey’s name to charity:water towards providing clean water to schools in Bangladesh.
Google claims that the Doodle team is particularly fond of this yearly contest, especially since they get to spend the day with 50 young doodlers, which, they say, is “inspiring.”
