Google unveils secret behind Dickens anniversary doodle

Post by Tom Blackburn on 8th February 2012
 in Google

Yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birthday, and to celebrate, search giant Google commissioned a custom doodle which was used on the site's front page for the day.

Google also made available in its own eBook store a selection of Dickens' most famous novels for free.

The Google doodle was the work of freelance artist Mike Dutton, who, the company said, had worked on many children's books, as well as producing doodles commemorating last year's royal wedding and before that, the football World Cup.

Mike said that distilling the essence of Dickens' work into a Google doodle was a challenge because the doodles "are intended to be fun and delightful". But with Dickens having frequently written about far darker subjects, he told Google that "Dickens' work is frequently serious in tone. So I decided to focus on Dickens' characters to bridge the gap."

Dickens fans were having fun throughout the day seeking how many of his characters they could identify in the doodle, and it's thought that at least six of his novels were represented.

And Mike added that, rather than work on a tablet, as he does for most of his doodles, this one had been created in a similar way to how it would have been done in Dickens' day, on an old-style physical drawing board.