Interview with Google logo designer

Doodling with the face of an Internet giant

It may be Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Vincent van Gogh’s birthday when Internet users notice that the logo on the global search engine Google has changed. The designer behind the changes is Dennis Hwang, a Korean American who, as Google’s international webmaster, is in charge of all the content that appears on Google Web sites globally.
The JoongAng Daily caught up with the busy Hwang last Wednesday while he was on a brief visit to Seoul to give a lecture at a technology expo.

Q. How did you become a logo designer?
A. Ever since I was little, I loved doodling and was scolded in elementary school for doing so. Later I majored in art with a minor in computer science so when I was an intern at Google, the founders were like, “Hey, you’re an art major, right? Why don’t you try designing the logo?” My first one was on July 14, 2000, and it was very exciting.

Are there any fun anecdotes related to some of the logos you’ve designed?
On Aug. 15, 2001, I designed a logo for the liberation day of Korea, but received a lot of e-mail from Indian users because the day also was the founding day of India. There were also complaints from Japanese users, many of whom told us that the Google site was hacked because they didn’t think that Google would put up a logo for the Korean holiday on the international Google site.
Once, when I drew autumn leaves in a logo for Thanksgiving, there were protests from Australian users. It was quite a shocking experience for me and from then on, I’ve learned to be more careful when it comes to seasons or culture.
One positive thing I remember is on Louis Braille’s birthday, I made the Google logo in Braille [Louis Braille was the inventor of Braille, a worldwide system used by blind and visually impaired people for reading and writing].
I heard that on that day the traffic at Web sites for organizations for the visually impaired increased 10 times.

How many logos do you design a year?
I think I design more than 50 a year, but you won’t find them all on Google Korea’s site because some of them are specifically for regional sites.

Do you paint or draw at home?
I have a lot of work, and it’s difficult to find time even to make the logos. By the time I’m home, I don’t feel like drawing any more. Making the logos fulfills all of my artistic desires.

From a designer’s perspective, what do you think of the layout or design of Korean portals such as Daum and Naver?
Those portals have different goals. They have integrated search functions and are convenient because you can find all that you want on the first page.
The latest, newest technology is available in Korea, and the Internet speed in Korean households is more or less homogenous, so Internet portals don’t have to worry about people’s Internet environments.
However, on a global basis, there are still people who use text browsers, or vision-impaired people can’t run script that involves Active X, so I think we’re aiming for different things.
Also, unlike other portals, Google doesn’t consider itself as a portal. Our goal is to have people come, find their information and leave as soon as possible. We don’t want people to come and spend a lot of time on our site, so we eliminate unnecessary images and design factors.

You have to oversee all the webmasters. What is your management style?
I’m strict about mistakes to make sure it doesn’t happen again because if one person makes a mistake, the experience of hundreds or thousands of people can change. I’m not the kind of person that yells or turns over chairs, though. I think it’s inefficient. You have to make people voluntarily want to work because they love it, not out of fear.

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years? Will you still be “doodling” Google logos?
I’m the kind of person that likes to hide in the corner and work quietly in front of the computer. My job now requires a lot of human interaction, because I have to recruit and make sure everyone is happy and so forth.
In a sense, it’s a job that’s not really me. I still have dreams as a developer, which I believe is every engineer’s dream.

By Wohn Dong-hee

PS3 shaky debut in Korea

Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) has finally been launched in Korea after months of delays. On June 16, Sony Computer Entertainment Korea held a special launch event at the Ipark Mall in Yongsan, central Seoul. The release came five years and four months after the PlayStation 2 was officially launched in Korea. The festivity was accompanied by female models in tight-fitting outfits holding elements of the PS3, a feature that seems to be essential for any local game or console release.
Hard-core gamers stood in line to buy a limited supply of 300 PS3s, but the crowd was not overwhelming. Standing at the front of the line was Kang Yoo-min of Seoul. He said he had waited since 9 a.m. on Thursday for the Saturday morning launch.
Interestingly, the console launched in Korea is 80 gigabytes ― the largest memory for any PS3 console yet. However, the price here is lower than in most other countries, except for Japan. In Korea, the PS3 is 518,000 won ($560) ― in Europe it is 599 euros ($801), in Japan 59,980 yen ($486) and in the United States it is $599.

	Gamers waiting in line on June 16 to buy a limited number of PS3s. Provided by the company

Lee Seong-ug, president and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Korea, said that the decision to release the “bigger” PS3 here is because Korea has a strong Internet infrastructure. “We believe that Korean game users will make the most of the PS3 functions, utilizing it for games, films and networking,” he said. “The PS3 is the diamond in the crown of digital convergence technology and this is the country that can optimize the console’s performance and online service functions.”
Lee said that new PS3 services are also waiting to be launched. “We have finished developing a high-resolution video-on-demand service technology for the PS3, which enables Korean users to watch digital content such as films in real-time. We are currently negotiating with Korean firms in order to launch this service,” he said.
Despite the comparatively low price of the PS3 in Korea, the console still faces lots of hurdles. For starters, it is still pricier than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Nintendo’s DS Lite (the Wii has not been released in Korea yet).
Also, although the PS3 has multimedia features such as the Blu-ray player, Internet functions and so forth, Koreans still don’t think of game consoles as integrated multimedia players.

	The PS3 console in Korea supports 80 gigabytes.

Finally, console games still account for less than 5 percent of the entire game market because of the dominance of online games.
In fact, a source at Microsoft Korea said that the company was waiting for the release of the PS3 because it would help raise recognition of console games on the whole.
Strangely enough, in Korea, Microsoft and Sony are pretty much in the same boat.
Gamers also point out that the PS3 needs to have more unique titles. Currently 15 titles have been released here with the Korean PS3, but 10 of them are available on Sony’s Xbox 360.
Also, only six of them have been converted to a Korean-language interface, thus creating a language barrier for users.

By Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily