Who designed the Android logo? A little-known woman behind a green robot

In most people's eyes, Irina Blok is just an obscure woman, but she designed a logo is almost household, everywhere ...

One day in 2010, Irina Blok, with her 6-year-old daughter, went to the cinema to watch "Alice in Wonderland". Before the show, the daughter of Android Logo,blok on the screen stood up and shouted, "This is my mother's design!" "The front row audience uniform to look at mother and daughter two, a face embarrassed Blok hurriedly use popcorn bucket to block himself."

In Blok's memory, the movie theater experience was the only time she had ever been attracted to the public's attention as an Android logo creator. Apparently, she is far less well-known than the green robot she created.

You must not have imagined that the Android logo's creative inspiration comes from the male and female graphic symbols on the toilet door.

Years ago, Google was preparing to apply the Android software platform to mobile devices. Google Designer Blok and his team were ordered to design a consumer-readable logo for Android, and the logo must contain a robotic image.

Blok began to study anything that could inspire something like sci-fi toys and space movies. Finally, she was inspired by the graphic symbols of the men and women on the toilet door. Blok a simple robot with a tin can-shaped torso and two antennas on its head.

Most brand logos are constant, or only a few variants, but the Android logo is derived from countless versions, it can be Superman, can be ninja, can be sweet female teachers, can also be elegant gentleman. These are in the same vein as Android's own open style.

Blok the logo and colleagues agree that the Android logo should be as open source as Android software. "We decided to make it a collaborative logo that everyone around the world could customize," he said. "It's a very bold approach," she told the New York Times. "Most companies are trying to protect their trademarks, and they will never be allowed to be copied, or even spend millions of dollars on lawsuits." But the Android logo will remain open source.

In Blok's view, creating an Android logo is like nurturing a child: "You give it life, and then it starts your life." ”

The green of the Android logo is also quite meaningful, Blok selected the PMS 376C, #A4C639 hexadecimal, because it represents nostalgic code color and is conspicuous in a black background.

Blok, an engineer family born in Russia, came to the United States at the age of 18 and worked for well-known companies such as Yahoo, Google and Adobe, and has now left Google and become Edmodo's creative director (Edmodo is a social network dedicated to teachers and students). Blok's design works have won countless awards, has appeared in communication Arts Magazine, how Magazine, Graphis and other well-known authoritative magazine.

Blok's personal website has a description of the Android logo: "I created this green kid when I was working at Google." The idea was to create an open source logo (like the Open source Android platform). It was put into the developer community after it was completed and there were no regular branding instructions. Like the Penguins of Linux, the Android logo is designed to establish identity for new products and to excite engineers. Initially, the Green robot represented the developer community, but soon faced millions of consumers who would create their own Android logo. ”