Google's unknown artist has huge following

黃正穆 Google商標化妝師

【編譯倪婉君/綜合報導】

黃正穆(Dennis Hwang)可能是全球最紅的「無名藝術家」，他的作品沒有放在畫廊或博物館展覽，卻已被人瀏覽成千上億次，因為他是知名搜尋引擎Google的商標設計師。

大家打開Google網頁時，一定曾發現它的商標設計會隨特殊節日或事件而轉換，像新年、耶誕節、世界盃等。這些異想天開的創意設計，全出自28歲的美籍韓裔設計師黃正穆的手筆，可說是Google創意商標的幕後推手。

美國有線電視新聞網 (CNN)報導，大學主修藝術的黃正穆在2000年加入Google當網站管理員 (webmaster)，其中一項任務就是在特別日子替公司「裝飾」商標。

黃正穆回憶當初是Google創辦人佩吉和布林主動找上他，對他說，「嘿，丹尼斯 (黃的英文名)，為何不試試看？」這句話，讓黃正穆一頭栽進Google的網路世界。

設計商標只占黃正穆工作的五分之一，過程有趣卻累人，他說，「過去幾年來，我挖空心思設計不同款式的Google商標，將獨特設計加進這6個英文字母內，實在是有趣的挑戰」，但他強調，他常常要不眠不休找設計靈感。

但黃正穆的辛苦有代價，像他替世界杯32支隊伍個別設計的Google商標，就大獲好評。他還收到全球網友寄來讚美他的電子郵件，而且不少人希望他能夠多出一些新設計。

黃正穆自己最滿意的設計是藝術家的誕辰系列，像梵谷、米開朗基羅、畢卡索等大師誕辰，都可見到黃正穆用大師經典作品替Google增添藝術氣息。當然，如果問到黃正穆最愛哪一個設計，他就像任何自豪的父母一樣選不出來，他說，「如果你硬要我挑一個，我做不到，它們全都獨一無二」。

此外，每當有新設計在網站亮相，與設計題材相關網站的點擊率就會節節上升，甚至造成網路塞車。像4月的Google商標以西班牙畫家米羅為題，藝術網站Artcyclopedia.com的瀏覽次數，就比平常多出成千上萬次。

黃正穆說他每年會跟Google職員開會幾次，討論未來有哪些節日或特殊事件可以設計，除了國際節日和有趣假日外，熱門新聞事件或其他酷題材都是黃正穆的設計來源。

【2006/07/21 聯合晚報】

Google's unknown artist has huge following

By David E. Williams
CNN

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/07/19/google.logo

(CNN) -- Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world -- his work doesn't hang in galleries or museums, but it's been viewed hundreds of millions of times.

The 28-year-old webmaster designs the whimsical logos that decorate Google.com's otherwise Spartan Web site on special occasions.

"It's always a fun kind of challenge to incorporate the logo into the design. Over the years, just because I kind of push myself to use different types of design if I can," Hwang said. (Have a look at Hwangs's Google logos)

He has been manipulating the six letters in the Google name into shamrocks, fireworks, hearts and goblins since shortly after he got an internship there in 2000. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin found out that he was an art major in college.

"They said 'Hey Dennis, why don't you give this a shot,' and I've been doing it ever since," he said.

Now he's in charge of all Google's webmasters, and designing the logos is only about 20 percent of his job -- but that doesn't mean it's not a lot of work. Hwang said he had to do a string of all-nighters after he had what he called his "brilliant" idea to do individual designs for each of the 32 teams in this year's World Cup soccer tournament.

The logos link to Google search results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.

"Sometimes we unfortunately take some sites down, so we have to cycle through different search queries midday," he said. "But, yeah, it's kind of the fun aspect of it that users can do more research about a topic or find out more about it on their own if they're not as familiar about what we're recognizing."

John Malyon, president of the online art guide Artcyclopedia.com, said his site got a huge surge in traffic in April when Google featured Spanish surrealist painter Joan Miro. He said he got tens of thousands of extra clicks.

"It didn't cause any server problems or anything. It just took me a while to track down what was happening," Malyon said. "You sort of come in, you turn on your server and look at your stats and they're wildly inflated, so you then have to do some detective work."

Malyon said most of the traffic appeared to be "curiosity clicks" -- people who were more interested in the logo than in the artist's work. He said the surge probably didn't help his business much, but he appreciated the interest.

"I'm quite happy, and every webmaster in the world is happy to have as many people as possible see their babies, but it's not the most targeted traffic in the world," he said.

Hwang said users e-mail from all over the world to praise the designs or petition for new ones.

Hwang said they did a logo for the Persian New Year after a huge online campaign and that the National Library Day design was very popular.

"That one was a huge hit among librarians across the whole country," he said. They even sent me library-related cool toys and hats things like that. One was even a librarian action figure with 'shushing action' so that was really funny."

He said he meets a few times a year with a small group of Google staffers to decide which events to cover.

"We talk about interesting holidays that are coming up, or various international holidays or any current events or news events that we think are cool and geeky or 'Google-y' in some sense and then we just sort of give it a go," he said.

Hwang said his favorite was the birthday series honoring Michelangelo, Picasso, Van Gogh and other famous artists.

"Having been a student of art history for a long time those are a little bit more personal," Hwang said. "Of course, trying to mimic the style of a master is always difficult and humbling, so it does take a lot more time to do those, but it's also a lot more fun."

But, like any proud parent, he would not say which one was his favorite.

"If you had me picking just one, I don't think I could. They're just all kind of special in their own little way."