Hanging with Hom: The artist behind some of your fave Google Doodles

Ever wondered how the world's most popular search engine comes up with its signature eye-catching doodles?

 

In a Google Hangout last December, one of the doodlers, American artist Jennifer Hom, shared her experiences with members of the media from Southeast Asia.

 

"We’re not just a search engine... We’re people too," said Hom.

 

Some of Hom's most prominent Google doodles are posted at http://google.com/doodles.  

 

According to a press statement, Hom started doodling with Google right after receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rhode Islands School of Design.

 

"Since 2009, she's celebrated the birthday of Freddie Mercury, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Lucille Ball, and Little Nemo (to name a few.)," the statement reads.

 

"We continue doing it (doodles) because we want to suggest that continue the human interaction in our homepage," said Joyce Hau during the Google Hangout. Hau is an international communications associate at Google.  

 

Some of Hom's most prominent doodles include the celebration of Han's Christian Andersen's birthday in 2010, Mark Twain's 176th birthday in 2011, and Amelia Earheart's 115th birthday.

 

"Amelia Earheart is close to her heart," said Hau.

 

But probably the most complicated yet the most popular is the 107th anniversary of Winston McCay's "Little Nemo is Slumberland." (See interactive version here and the whole story behind it here.)

 

However, Hom admits that doodling at Google is not just for fun.

 

"We provide instructions without giving words... We have to make it clear without using any words," Hom said.

Sometimes, doodlers had to do specific doodles for countries with larger audience share or hits.  

"There’s always the coding and debugging," Hom said.  — TJD, GMA News