Dennis Hwang
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Hwang Jeong-mok (Template:Langx; born Template:Circa 1978),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> known professionally as Dennis Hwang, is a South Korean graphic artist currently working for Niantic,<ref name=artinaction>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> who was the original designer of some of the festive logos for Google.
Early life and educationEdit
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he moved to South Korea when he was about five years old.<ref name="koreaherald">Jin, Kim. "Computer artist doodles oodles of 'Google's Template:Webarchive." Korea Herald. March 22, 2002. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.</ref> His hometown was Gwacheon where he "had a very normal childhood".<ref name="koreaherald"/> He went through public schools, spending six years at Gwacheon Elementary School and two years at Munwon Middle School, before returning to Knoxville and graduating from Bearden High School.<ref name="koreaherald"/> His doodles during these years were frowned upon. On a return visit to Knoxville in 2003, Hwang was awarded an Appalachian Arts Fellow Award at World's Fair Park by then-mayor Victor Ashe. Ashe proclaimed, "Mr. Hwang's work is impressioned hundreds of millions of times each week, and reaches all corners of the globe. He is arguably Knoxville's most persistent artist."
He received a degree from Stanford in arts and computer science.<ref name="gtricksbio"/>
CareerEdit
During the Burning Man festival of 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin designed Google's first "doodle" for the purpose of notifying users of their absence. Subsequently, Hwang was assigned to create special Google logos.<ref name="gtricksbio">Gtricks Dennis Hwang Bio/Video</ref> His first logo design for Google was in honor of Bastille Day,<ref name=artinaction /> on July 14, 2000, at the request of Page and Brin,<ref name="cnninterview">Williams, David E. "Google's unknown artist has huge following." CNN. July 19, 2006. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.</ref> and he went on to design a great many specialty logos. By 2005, he was creating about 50 Google logos each year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hwang has designed Google logos commemorating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other events such as Piet Mondrian's birthday. He also designed the iconic Gmail logo on the night before its release.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
His position within Google was international webmaster, which made him responsible for all of their international content.<ref>Hwang, Dennis. "Oodles of Doodles." Google (corporate blog). June 8, 2004. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.</ref>