Think doodling is a waste of time? Then clearly you haven’t met Patrick Horan (18), the winner of the fourth annual Doodle 4 Google competition, whose artwork will be featured on Ireland’s Google home page all day next Friday.
The sixth-year student from St Munchin’s College in Limerick won a laptop for himself and his teacher, as well as a €10,000 technology grant for his school.
A Google doodle is a Google logo altered for special events and occasions. The drawings, and sometimes interactive animations, are designed around the logo and feature on Google’s home page for a day.
The theme of this year’s contest was “I wish . . .”. Horan’s doodle of the iconic Google trademark featured a “steampunk” theme of cogs and clocks against a backdrop of the night sky, reflecting a desire to time travel.
“Many of us look towards the stars to make a wish. I wish I could turn back time to see our world in past times,” Horan wrote of his entry. He’s the second student from his school to win the competition. St Munchin’s alumnus Evan O’Sullivan Glynn won Doodle 4 Google’s first competition in 2009.
Online voting narrowed down winners in five age groups. The overall winner was selected by Sophia Foster-Dimino, a professional doodler at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.