Interesting Green: How Android's iconic bot was born

My Paper, Monday, October 14, 2013, Page A18, My Executive, Technology
From http://epaper.mypaper.sg/emnd/fvxen/fvxp/fvxpress.php?param=2013-10-14

Source Website:
http://mypaper.sg/technology/how-androids-iconic-bot-was-born-20131014
http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/ - (Picture)
By NYT, mypaper, Published on Oct 14, 2013

PHOTO: DROID OF A THOUSAND FACES: The Android logo's creator, Ms Irina Blok, and her colleagues agreed that the logo, like the software, should be open-sourced, giving rise to many reinterpretations of its design.
ILLUSTRATIONS: GOOGLE
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My Paper, Monday, October 14, 2013, Page A18, My Executive, Technology

PHOTO: Ms Irina Blok, creator of the Android Logo
"We decided it would be a collaborative logo that everybody in the world could customise."
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My Paper, Monday, October 14, 2013, Page A18, My Executive, Technology

SAN FRANCISCO
MS IRINA Blok may have drawn one of the most recognised logos in the world, but her association with the green Android logo has not made her famous.

Ms Blok can think of only one incident when she garnered the public's attention for designing it.

In 2010, she and her six-year-old daughter were in a cinema waiting for Alice In Wonderland to begin, when the Android logo flashed on the screen.

Her daughter stood up suddenly and yelled: "My mummy invented that!"

Everyone in the row in front of them turned around to stare. Ms Blok was so embarrassed, she said, she sank down in her seat and hid behind her tub of popcorn.

The Android logo was born three years earlier, when Ms Blok worked as a designer at Google.

As Google prepared to endorse the Android software platform for mobile devices, she and her design-team colleagues were told to create a look for the software - something that consumers could identify easily.

PHOTO: Standard Android logo is from a stripped-down robot with a tin-can-shaped torso and antennas on its head.
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http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/android_bigbox_standard_800.jpg
http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/
http://dketoys.com/blog/

The logo, she was told, should involve a robot, and so she studied sci-fi toys and space movies - anything that might help her create a character.

In the end, she took inspiration from a distinctly human source: the pictograms of the universal man and woman that often appear on toilet doors. She drew a stripped-down robot with a tin-can-shaped torso and antennas on its head.

While Ms Blok worked on her design, she and her colleagues agreed that the logo, like the software, should be open-sourced.

"We decided it would be a collaborative logo that everybody in the world could customise," she said. "That was pretty daring."

PHOTO: Most companies, of course, defend their trademark from copycats, and million-dollar lawsuits have been filed over the rights to corporate insignia. This one (Android logo) would remain free. Picture is a version of Pinkey.
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http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/android_bigbox_pinkie_800.jpg
http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/
http://dketoys.com/blog/

Most companies, of course, defend their trademark from copycats, and million-dollar lawsuits have been filed over the rights to corporate insignia. This one would remain free.

In the years since, the Android logo has been dressed up as a ninja, given skis and skateboards, and even transformed into a limited-edition Kit Kat bar.

Ms Blok - who is now the creative director of Edmodo, a social network for students and teachers - said that creating the logo was like raising a child.

"You give a life to this individual, and then it has a life of its own."By NYT, mypaper, Published on Oct 14, 2013

PHOTO: Big Box Edition Android Mini Figures

The Big Box series features bold and colorful designs with wide appeal in mind. Each figure is window boxed and presented in a 12 piece display case. Formerly only available via Big Box retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters, Fry’s and FYE (and a few unauthorized resellers!), we’ve secured remaining stock and are offering them for the first time to our smaller retailers for even less than the big boys.

Cases are ideal for retail display and sale, containing multiples of the most popular designs. Each case of 12 contain 3 Green, 2 Business Man, 2 Taxi Bots, 2 Yetis, 1 Pinkey, 1 Bear Tag and 1 Ruby Red
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http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/android_bigbox-case.jpg
http://creaturesinmyhead.com/temp/dke/Android/BigBox1/
http://dketoys.com/blog/

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