Google Crowns Ireland’s Champion Doodler

Six year old school girl scoops top prize and €10,000 technology grant for Mary Mother of Hope JNS Dublin

Dublin, Monday, 7th March 2011:  Six year old Layla Karpuz, a senior infants student from Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, Dublin 15, has been crowned Ireland’s top doodler after winning Google’s third Irish Doodle 4 Google competition. She was selected as overall winner by Google web designer and senior doodler Mike Dutton, who travelled from Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California especially for the event.

Layla’s winning entry entitled “Love Google” will appear on the Google homepage in Ireland on Wednesday, 9th March, 2011 where it will be seen by millions of internet users. Layla’s school will receive a €10,000 technology grant, and Layla and her teacher will also receive a personal laptop computer each.

Entrants in this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition were asked to design a doodle of the Google logo on the theme ‘To me, happiness is..’. Describing her doodle Layla said, “My picture is about the things that make me feel happy. In my picture you can see love hearts, curls, shamrocks, people with fancy hats, people going on a bear hunt, grass men (men disguised as grass), plants, shamrock plants for Ireland, Grannies and a caterpillar because I like searching for caterpillars. I used different colours in my picture because it looks nice.  I like my picture!”

Speaking at the prize giving ceremony Mike Dutton, Google’s senior doodler said, “This is the first time I’ve been involved with the Irish Doodle 4 Google competition and I am overwhelmed by the creativity shown by all those who entered the competition. The Irish are known worldwide for their creativity and artistic flair and if this year’s entries are anything to go by the younger generations have it in bucketfuls too! The public did a great job picking the four national finalists. I really struggled to choose the overall winner but I loved Layla’s colourful doodle and fantastic description. I know it will look great on the Google Ireland homepage on Wednesday!”

John Herlihy, Head of Google Ireland said, “The Doodle 4 Google competition is one of my favourite events of the year. Each year it goes from strength to strength and has been growing steadily in popularity. I love seeing the creativity of Irish children and how the local communities come together to support their regional winners. Everyone involved should be extremely proud of their achievements. We are also pleased to support the winning school with a €10,000 technology grant. It is so important for Ireland’s knowledge economy that children have access to technology from an early age and we are delighted that we can make this significant contribution to a school in Ireland.”

60 regional finalists, selected by an independent panel of judges, went forward for the online public vote in January. All 60 regional Doodle 4 Google winners were invited to a special fun day and prize giving ceremony in Dublin today to celebrate their achievement. At the event, held in the Science Gallery, the children were treated to a special doodle workshop with Google master doodler Mike Dutton as well as taking part in a host of other fun workshops.

Over 63,000 votes were cast by the public in the online vote and the four doodles with the highest number of votes made it through to the national finals. From these four doodles, Mike Dutton then selected Layla as the overall winner.

The three other national finalists in the Doodle 4 Google competition are: Group 2 Ella O'Hagan, 6th Class, Scoil Iosagain Co. Donegal; Group 3 Vicky Enright, 3rd Year, Salesian Secondary, Limerick and Group 4 Niamh Byrne, 5th Year, Presentation Secondary School, Tipperary. These students all received a laptop each and a laptop for their teacher.

You can view all the 60 regional finalists’ doodles on www.google.ie/doodle4google

About Doodle 4 Google

The Doodle 4 Google competition was launched in October 2010.  Open to all primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland, students were asked to create a doodle based on the theme 'To me, happiness is…’.  From time to time Google changes its logo for special occasions or to mark events and these are known as doodles – the drawings that are designed on, around and through the Google logo on the website’s home page.

Entries were accepted in 4 categories – two primary school categories and two secondary school categories.  Primary level, Group one comprises junior and senior infants, 1st and 2nd class.  Group 2 comprises 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class.  Secondary level, Group 3 comprises 1st, 2nd and 3rd year and Group 4 comprises transition, 5th and 6th year and Youthreach.

The expert judging panel included Ian Brunswick, Events and Community Manager at the Science Gallery, Sinead Connelly, Dublin City Arts Officer, Sean Kissane, Curator of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Gary Granville, Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design.

The entries were judged on both artistic merit and how well students explained what the theme 'To me, happiness is….’ means to them.

Along with having their doodle displayed on the Google home page in Ireland in March 2011, the winner will also receive a laptop for themselves and one for their teacher and the winning school will receive a €10,000 technology grant.