The Google logo: a history

Google logo
(Image credit: Google)

The Google logo has become one of the most recognised logos in the world. It's certainly one of the most seen. Pretty much anyone who uses the internet (so pretty much anyone, period) sees the Google logo on a daily basis every time they look for a restaurant, pub quiz trivia or the meaning of life on the world's most popular search engine (unless you're really using Bing).

Today, the Google logo is a masterclass in design. Its use of colours and a clear, simple but distinctive typeface make it memorable, instantly recognisable, attractive, (or at least not displeasing) to see on a screen every day, and infinitely modifiable as we see in Google's wider family of logos and its regular doodles. But it wasn't always that way. Oh no, the early Google logos are quite hard to look at today. 

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Joe Foley

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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