Doodle 4 Google is a competition open to K-12 students of U.S. schools to create their own Google doodle. This year’s theme for the doodles is "If I could travel in time, I’d visit…"
We love to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people, and we are always excited to see the range of inspiring doodles that are submitted.
We've been hosting the Doodle 4 Google competition every year in the U.S. since 2008, so this is our fifth year.
We've hosted the competition around the world in over 17 countries/regions. We've been amazed and inspired by the doodle submissions in every competition, and are very excited to host Doodle 4 Google in the U.S. again this year.
Last year, we received over 107,000 submissions from students coast to coast.
The National Winner for Doodle 4 Google in 2011 was Matteo Lopez, a second grader at Monte Verde Elementary School in South San Francisco, California. Matteo’s design was selected from more than 107,000 student submissions from all over the country. You can view a video from last year’s announcement event with all the Regional Finalists here.
For our fifth year hosting Doodle 4 Google in the United States, we want to give students a blank canvas and harness their curiosity to imagine the past, present, or future. This open ended prompt is intended to encourage creative, inspiring, and fun ideas of what place they could explore and observe regardless of when an event that they want to depict took place. We know that this crop of students will be tomorrow’s leaders and inventors, and we’re very much looking forward to the exciting designs that they’re going to submit.
Some potential examples of this year's theme are: If I could travel in time, I’d visit...
We're excited to be partnering with the New York Public Library for this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. They will be hosting a special exhibition of the 50 State Winners in New York City, after the announcement of the National Winner on May 17, 2012.
In a new addition to this year’s contest, we will be exhibiting the artwork of the State Finalists in local museums across the country such as the Pacific Science Center in Washington and the Bechtler Museum in North Carolina. Be sure to check out the partner page for exhibition locations near you.
This year we are very excited to make the contest even more easily accessible to students across the country.
We are thrilled to work with the iconic art supply company Crayola this year to encourage creativity and art among youngsters. Crayola and Google both celebrate creativity and innovation among America’s youth. The partnership will also mean the winning doodle, which will be seen by millions on the Google homepage, can also be retained as a keepsake in households across the country on a special edition of the Crayola 64 box.
We welcome submissions from parents, teachers, and after school programs, and just ask that the entry is accompanied by a completed official entry form signed by the student’s parent or guardian. Like last year, parents are encouraged to submit their children’s work directly for the contest. If you are a parent, we ask that you check with your child’s school first to see if they are participating, to avoid duplicate entries. Your child must be enrolled in a U.S. based school serving grades K-12 to participate in the contest.
New! Last year we piloted allowing submissions from two after school programs. This year, any after school program is welcome to submit doodles on behalf of their students as long as the entry is accompanied by a completed official entry form signed by the student’s parent or guardian. Also, you should note that the $50,000 technology grant will go to the winning student’s school regardless of the submission channel. Your student members must be be enrolled in a U.S. based school that is serving grades K-12 when you enter them in the contest.
There is no limit to how many doodles each school, after school program, or parent can submit. However, please remember we only accept one original doodle per student.
We can only accept one doodle per student. Our judging platform will verify that each doodle submitted is in fact a unique entry. If we receive two entries from the same student, we will accept the doodle that was mailed in first, based on the postal “received by” date. Any other entries from the same student will be disqualified. We ask that all parents check in with their child’s school first before submitting to avoid duplicative efforts.
At the time of submitting the doodle, the student must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent U.S. legal resident (e.g., must be able to show proof of legal permanent residence, for example, a “green card”), be enrolled in a U.S. based school and be living in the U.S. He or she must also obtain their parents’ or legal guardians’ prior permission to compete in the contest via a signed entry form.
The contest launched on Jan 18, 2012. Doodle submissions -- along with a completed entry form available here signed by a parent or guardian -- are due on March 23, 2012 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PT).
No. In response to user feedback, we’ve decided to make entering Doodle 4 Google even easier by eliminating registration. Now, all that is needed is a completed entry form signed by the student’s parent or guardian accompanying the doodle.
This year, the doodle must be completed on the second page of the official entry form. We have moved to this method of submissions in order to increase legibility when we scan the doodle for judging purposes.
Yes, you can use Photoshop. Create your doodle in a new document 1894 pixels high by 2960 pixels wide at 300 dpi. When you are finished, simply open the second page of the PDF in Photoshop and use it as the background layer for a new document and paste your digital doodle in as a second layer. If necessary, move and resize your doodle to fit inside the doodle box. Don't change the size of the document from the original PDF, and you should be able to print it, and then fill in the few fields on that page by hand. Hand written entries will be accepted. FOR TEACHERS: If you'd like to have your class participate using Photoshop, you can create a document with the background pasted in for your students to use as their canvas.
Eligible Doodles must be two-dimensional and scannable. This includes any artistic material that will remain flat on the page. This could include: paint, pencils, crayons, markers, chalk, pastels, charcoal, or cray-pas. Computer-generated images are also accepted. This means that any materials that may cause the image to be three-dimensional will not be accepted. This may include , but is not limited to, materials such as puff paint, stickers, pipe cleaners, macaroni, sequins, glitter, beads, tissue paper, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and pom-poms.
Yes. If you draw the Doodle on another sheet of paper, you can tape it to the second page of the entry form. Just be sure that the tape is clear, and that the Doodle fits within the lines outlined on the entry form.
While white paper is best, you can utilize other light-colored papers. Papers with light patterns are ok too – just be sure your Doodle is clear and the pattern doesn't interfere. You can also use a thicker paper stock if you like, but it must be paper, not cardboard or foam board.
Students' doodles are judged by a combination of Google employees and a panel of "Guest Judges" that includes well-known actors, singers, illustrators, and cartoonists. Submissions are divided into five grade groups (Grades K - 3, Grades 4 - 5, Grades 6 - 7, Grades 8 - 9, and Grades 10 - 12) for judging. The judges narrow the total submissions pool down to 250 State Finalists across grade groups. From these State Finalists this panel selects 50 State Winners. We then invite the public to vote online for their favorites. The public vote helps determine the top doodle from each age group; these artists will be named the National Finalists. The National Winner is then selected by Google executives from among the National Finalists and announced at an event held in New York City on May 17, 2012.
Each year, we have a panel of Guest Judges -- actors, singers, illustrators and cartoonists -- to help us judge Doodle 4 Google. Among this year’s Guest Judges, we’re honored to have Katy Perry, singer, Jordin Sparks, singer and actress, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, creator and executive producer of “Phineas and Ferb,” Mo Willems, creator of the Knufflebunny series, Holly Black, author of the Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi, Illustrator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, Jack Martin, Assistant Director for Public Programs and Lifelong Learning for Children, Teens and Families at The New York Public Library, and Brian Nemeckay, Digital Design Creative Director of Crayola.
Yes. The public will be invited to vote online from May 2, 2012 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) to May 10, 2012 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time (PT). They will be asked to select their favorite doodles, one from each grade group.
We’ve been looking into ways to expand the contest and hope that the new structure will make it more easily accessible to all students, no matter where they live. We will also be able to celebrate the artwork of more talented students thanks to the new contest structure.
We looked at the number of submissions in past years and broke down the grade groups differently to allow for more even distribution among groups. This way, a child in second grade, for example, competes against roughly the same number of other contestants as those in any other grade. Also, the National Winner is selected across age groups, so all age groups should have an equal chance to win.
You can e-mail us at doodle4google-usteam@google.com.