黃正穆 谷歌徽標背后的男人

Ever wonder who creates the beautiful logos which you see daily on the Google homepage commemorating holidays and events？ It’s Dennis Hwang， the official logo designer for Google， who creates those Google Doodles.

Dennis Hwang’s drawings are viewed by nearly 180 million people a day. A daily pleasure for many Internet searchers， his ever-changing logos give the search giant’s homepage even more appeal. He’s one of the most important graphic designers in the business world. And yet the mild-mannered29-year-old keeps a low profile—and devotes only a small fraction of his time to his art.

Hwang is the Google doodler， the man whose hand-drawn alterations of the search engine’s logo commemorate holidays， artists’ birthdays， and other random events that the company deems important. In June， 2004， a French astronomer sent Hwang an e-mail explaining that within 24 hours Venus would pass in front of the sun—the first time it had happened in 122 years. Quickly， Hwang mocked up a version of the Google logo where the second “O” had become a sun with a black spot on it representing Venus. He showed the design to Larry Page and Sergey Brin， Google’s co-founders， who liked it. “We are a geeky company， so it was an easy sell，” says Hwang. “Within a few hours， I had posted the doodle and we were alerting the world to this cool event.” A former art-computer science double-major at Stanford University， Hwang is also now Google’s Webmaster. He devotes 80% to 90% of his time to managing the team of 30 people who maintain Google’s web pages in more than 100 languages. His doodles， about 50 a year， are dashed off using an electronic tablet that translates his scrawlings onto his screen.

Hwang’s whimsical designs serve a serious business function. Google’s multi-colored Google logo is just as important a branding device as Apple’s apple. As Google balloons into a powerful and controversial tech behemoth， the doodles humanize the company. With their rough， hand-drawn look， they hark back to the company’s experimental， nimble， intellectual， and fanciful startup legacy. “The doodles let Google wink at their audience，” says Bill Gardner， founder of LogoLounge.com， a site that covers trends in corporate logo design.

Born in Knoxville， Tenn.， Hwang also spent part of his youth living in a Seoul suburb. As a junior at Stanford in 2000， his residential adviser asked him to be an assistant Webmaster at a then-little-known search engine startup named Google. He started as a summer intern and then worked 40 hours a week his senior year while completing his undergraduate degree.

By that time， Google had already experimented with doodles. The first one was done by Brin and Page in 1999 when they left for the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Hwang started doodling almost by accident. “It was simply because I was an art major in a very small company，” he recalls. His first design honored Bastille Day in 2000.

To plan his doodles， Hwang meets quarterly with a team of vice-presidents and creative directors. People now expect a doodle on certain holidays， like Thanksgiving. “We look at the calendar and muse about what is happening around the world， interesting events or birthdays of people who have contributed something significant.” Once he drafts a doodle， he shows it to Page and Brin. “Holding up my mockups and then holding my breath while Larry and Sergey do their ‘ thumbs-up， thumbs-down’ emperor thing is never boring，” wrote Hwang on a Google blog. “I love the fact that my little niche within this company turned out to be something so cool and creative and， well， Google-y.”

Hwang also gets many ideas from enthusiastic users like the French astronomer. In 2005 librarians around the country lobbied Hwang for a National Library Week doodle. After he created one， he received a big care package complete with a librarian action figure that shushed.

Some doodles draw strong responses. An early design for Thanksgiving featured an innocuous turkey raking leaves. But it drew vitriolic responses from Brazil， Australia， and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere from users who accused Hwang of being Northern Hemisphere-centric. “That one taught me to think more broadly，” he said. Another logo， for Michelangelo’s birthday， proved to be a little too risque for some users. “A lot of businessmen were startled when they pulled up the home page in client meetings and there was the nude David.”

In 2003， he wove the double helix into Google’s logo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA. In 2007， he met James Watson， one of the scientists who discovered DNA. “He asked me for a signed print of the Google DNA logo，” says Hwang， his voice brimming with enthusiasm. “I couldn’t believe it. My drawing had come full circle.”

每天在谷歌主頁看到那些紀念一個個節假日和事件的漂亮徽標，你是否曾對其背后的設計者感到好奇？設計那些谷歌徽標的人就是黃正穆（韓裔美國人，英文名為“丹尼斯”），谷歌的正牌徽標設計師。

每天，有近1.8億人看得到黃正穆為谷歌設計的徽標。每天，他那些變化多樣的徽標都給眾多因特網搜索者以賞心悅目之感，也使得谷歌這搜索巨人的主頁變得更具吸引力。他是商界最重要的平面設計師之一。然而，這位29歲，文質彬彬的繪圖師一向低調——在設計方面他其實只放了一小部分時間。

黃正穆是谷歌徽標的設計者，他為谷歌這個搜索引擎設計各式手繪圖案，紀念假日、藝術家的生日以及其他一些谷歌看重的事件。2004年6月，一位法國天文學家給黃正穆發了一封郵件，向其解釋，在24小時內，金星將運行至太陽前方——這可是122年一遇的事件。于是，黃正穆迅速設計了一個模擬此場景的谷歌徽標——谷歌英文名稱中的第二個“O”變成了太陽，它上面的一個黑點代表金星。他把這個設計拿給谷歌的兩位創始人拉里·佩奇和謝爾蓋·布林看，他倆都很喜歡。“我們可是個‘科技怪杰’公司，這樣的主題一下子就能達成共識，”黃正穆說道，“幾個小時后，我就把這個徽標掛上了谷歌主頁，提醒全世界關注這一奇妙事件。”

黃正穆畢業于美國斯坦福大學，擁有藝術和計算機科學雙學位，現在他同時還是谷歌的網站管理員。他把80%到90%的時間用來管理一個30人的團隊，這個團隊維持著谷歌100多種語言版本主頁的運作。他一年大概設計50個徽標，借助電子平板將速畫的手繪作品轉換成電子格式，顯示在其屏幕上。

黃正穆的這些古怪設計有著一個重要的商業用途。谷歌的彩色徽標作為一種品牌工具，有如蘋果品牌的“蘋果”一般重要。隨著谷歌發展壯大為強大而具有爭議性的科技巨擘，這些徽標使公司變得人性化。這些粗略且具手繪風格的徽標，讓人想起谷歌最初作為新興科技公司那份玩票性，那種靈活機智、天馬行空的氛圍傳承。“谷歌借助其徽標向其受眾俏皮眨眼，”追蹤關注企業徽標設計潮流的網站LogoLounge.com的創建者比爾·加德納說道。

黃正穆出生于美國田納西州諾克斯維爾市，他年少時也曾在韓國首爾郊區度過一段時光。2000年，他在斯福坦大學念大三，他的駐校導師讓他到一個當時還少有人知的名為“谷歌”的搜索引擎擔任網站管理助理。他最初只是在暑假期間到里面實習，接著，在念大四時，他每周在谷歌工作40個小時，同時還得完成他的大學學業。

那時，谷歌已經開始嘗試設計徽標了。第一個徽標是布林和佩奇于1999年前往在內華達沙漠舉辦的“火人節”前設計出來的。黃正穆起先設計徽標純屬偶然。“因為在這個很小的公司里，我是讀美術專業出身的，就是這么簡單。”他回憶道。2000年，他設計出了第一個徽標，是為紀念巴士底日而設計的。

為了計劃他那些徽標設計，黃正穆每季都會與一個由副總裁和創意總監組成的團隊開會。大家如今會期待在某些節日里，比如感恩節，看到相應的徽標。“我們會看日歷，想想世界當下的時政大事、趣事，以及那些有卓越貢獻的偉人的生日。”每當畫好徽標的草圖，他便會拿去給佩奇和布林看。“舉起我的設計稿，然后屏息聽著拉里和謝爾蓋像‘皇上’一般贊許抑或否定，我從不覺得厭煩。”黃正穆在谷歌博客上寫道，“在這個公司里，我那小小的特長原來可以那么酷，那么有創意，那么具有‘谷歌’風格，我實在很高興。”

黃正穆也從熱情的谷歌用戶（比如那個法國天文學家）那獲得了很多想法。2005年，美國各地的圖書管理員游說黃正穆給美國國家圖書館周設計一個徽標。他完成設計后，就收到了一個很大的愛心包裹，里面還有一個對人擺出“噓”姿勢的圖書管理員人偶公仔。

有些徽標則引起強烈的反響。他早期曾為感恩節設計過一個徽標——主角是只在用耙子耙著樹葉的無傷大雅的火雞。但這個徽標遭到了巴西、澳大利亞以及其他南半球谷歌用戶的尖酸回應，他們指責他以北半球為中心。“那件事教我要更全面地思考，”他說道。另一個為紀念米開朗基羅的生日而設計的徽標則在一些谷歌用戶看來有點過于淫穢。“許多商界人士會見客戶時打開谷歌主頁，一看到裸體大衛，都給嚇了一跳。”

2003年，他在谷歌徽標中運用了雙螺旋設計來慶祝人類發現DNA 50周年。2007年，他會見了詹姆士·沃森——發現DNA的其中一個科學家。“他問我要了一張印有谷歌DNA徽標設計且有我簽名的圖畫。”黃正穆說道，他的聲音里滿溢著熱情。“太令人難以置信了，我的畫回到給我靈感的DNA發現者那兒去了。”