Kuala Lumpur (8 September 2014) – Google has announced the grand winner and category winners of Malaysia’s first Doodle 4 Google competition, and the top honour goes to 15-year-old Lee Yee Run’s creation taking the grand prize ahead of three other age-group category winners.
The student from SMJK Yoke Kuan in Sekinchan, Selangor whose ‘Beauty of Malaysia’ doodle showcases the ‘true and unique colour’ of Malaysia, will see it take centre stage on the Google Malaysia homepage on 16 September 2014 in conjunction with Malaysia Day.
The other Doodle 4 Google category winners are:
- Age 7-9: Vaisnawi Harulnathan of SJKG Vallambrosa, Klang,
- Age 10-12: Chin Joe Yi of SJK (C) Kwang Hua, Penang; and
- Age 13-15: Mohammed Anoof Ibrahim of Mutiara International Grammar School, Ampang.
“Many of us may have been caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, missing out on the beauty of our country,” said Lee, who also won for the 16-17 age category. “Let’s step out of the box, travel to attractive spots, discover and embrace the true and unique colours of Malaysia.”
Doodles are spontaneous changes made to the Google logo that have become a much-loved staple of the Internet and created to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists who have helped shaped history. Some popular doodles include Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Ray Charles, the Pac man doodle, World Cup and Olympics doodles, amon others.
Although this is the first Doodle 4 Google competition held locally, it is not the first time Google had created a Malaysia-centric doodle. The 2013 Elections, Yasmin Ahmad’s 56th birthday and most recently, the 57th Merdeka Day doodle commissioned to artist Red Hong Yi have been given the spotlight on google.com.my.
Google doodles are usually created internally by Google’s doodles team but the company does make special exceptions, as in the case of Doodle 4 Google Malaysia.
Google Malaysia Managing Director Sajith Sivanandan, in congratulating the winners and thanking all participants, said doodles submitted were judged on artistic merit, creativity and theme communication. The winning doodles were selected using a two-step process involving Googlers and online votes by members of the public.
The official Google doodle team, made up of Google web designers, helped to select the grand prize doodle from the four age group category winners.
“The team worked hard to shortlist and curate 20 doodle designs that best embodied imagination nd creativity – two traits we value super highly at Google,” said Sajith. “These ‘crème de la crème’ were then listed for public online voting throughout the month of August.”
Themed ‘Malaysia to me is…’ in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2014, the Doodle 4 Google competition was launched in April this year, open to all Malaysian promary and secondary school students.
Google Malaysia organised the Doodle 4 Google competition supported by Digi, Teach for Malaysia and Petrosains.
To see the other shortlisted doodles, visit google.com.my/doodle4google.
