Who the heck is Dennis Hwang?

Think you know art? Ever heard of Dennis Hwang? Probably not, but you're probably very familiar with his art work. His work can't be found in art museums or at sidewalk art fairs. Nope, Hwang is the artist who does the Google logo artwork. Yea, the logo artwork that shows up around holidays and special world events. I'm a HUGE fan of the logo artwork, but it wasn't until today that I really gave it much thought. CNN.com ran a story on Hwang today that I found very interesting, and I thought I'd share it here. (the link was too long and it was causing some issues when I post it together, so I had to separate it. The first half ends with / and the second half starts with internet. You'll have to copy and past each half into your browser. Sorry) http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/
internet/07/19/google.logo/index.html

Don't stop there. You have to check out
http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html, too. This is the site where you can see seven years worth of logo art of Hwang's. It's cool to look back at the "early days" and see how his work has matured and the depth of his creativity. In another article I found on Hwang, he said that the "o"s and "L" are the easiest letters to work with. The "e" is the most rarely used letter in his art. My favorite, though, uses the "e" in a cool way. See the above example of the logo he created in 2005 to celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday. The other neat thing is that he says he likes planning artwork that celebrates otherwise unthought of holidays and makes a point to create artwork that celebrate international days, not just those known in the U.S.

Finally, to test your Logo IQ, here's a quiz. The first one to comment with the correct answer wins a day off work/day away from kids. (You'll just have to tell your boss or spouse you won a contest and are taking the day off). Ready to play? QUESTION: What was Google called before it was Google?