Celebrate Google's 25th Birthday with us.

Let's share a glimpse of Google's history. We'll take you back to our student days and how that Google logo that we all know and love began – with Ruth Kedar. 

Let's take you back to 1999, the days of the dot-com boom. Two Ph.D. students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at Stanford University – where Ruth Kedar was an art and product design instructor – were in search of branding and logo design help for their soaring startup, Google.

Kedar met with Page and Brin, and it's safe to say she was dazzled from the start. "Even at that very early stage, it was clear that their vision was long-term. Their intent was to create a company like no other." Kedar began creating Google's logo against a backdrop that was "in political and economic turmoil," she says. But also a time of lasting pop culture moments like the release of the first "Harry Potter" book and Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" at the top of the charts. Yet, Kedar drew from "culture as a whole" to arrive at a timeless solution for Google's logo.

With a mix of curiosity, patience, and humility, Kedar began to develop a style for the logo that is now recognisable to so many. Making a search engine feel accessible was important at a moment when people were wary of using the internet, and search was still a relatively novel concept. Kedar introduced the idea of children's play and primary colours to help bridge the gap for people afraid of interacting with new technology. As Kedar explains, "Not play as in being childish or not sophisticated, but play as a joyful thing. When you play, you have curiosity, you take risks, and you have fun in the process."  

And play was all around: Lava lamps, Lego cubes, and primary colours dotted Google's tiny office. The colours reminded Kedar of children's building blocks, and search represented building blocks of learning and possibility. "Primary colours are the basis from which infinite colours are created. By typing a few words [into a search engine], you can access an infinity of answers."

But the logo was also rooted in the concepts of continuity and search. "When you search for something, you are looking for past knowledge so that you can find an idea today for something that you're going to do in the future," That's why Kedar used a typeface that encompassed both past traditions and the future. The Catull font was perfect. The resulting design, subtly playful and deceptively simple, reflected Google's underlying mission of making technology accessible and user-friendly to all.

Kedar's 1999 logo design has now been viewed trillions of times and inspired people around the world to make new connections and explore new ideas. Kedar says: "I've been very fortunate to witness over the last 25 years how Larry and Sergey's ideas, ideals, visions, and goals of so long ago not only became a reality but far superseded their wildest dreams." 

As Google has grown, so has its logo, 25 years on, with so many variations and thousands of Google doodles.