Drawing the future

Sep 14 2007 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

SCHOOLCHILDREN in the region have moved closer to seeing their designs for the Google logo displayed on the search engine’s homepage.

Thousands of children across the country entered the Doodle For Google competition on the theme of “My Future”. Yesterday, The Journal chose six designs from the North-East to go forward to the regional heats.

Should they progress further, their work could appear on the Google homepage when Dennis Hwang, Google’s webmaster, picks the best doodle in the country.

Oliver Rickman, from Google, said: “When we launched this competition we couldn’t wait to see what our young people thought about the future. We’ve found the entries from Newcastle completely fascinating – full of issues like global warming, friendship and peace.”

Josh Herczeg and Andre Addis, both 13, from St Thomas More School in Blaydon, will represent the Newcastle area in the 12-14 year age group.

Meanwhile, the two five to eight-year-olds selected were Joe Pomfret, seven, of East Boldon Infant School and Arjun Anilkumar, eight, from the Royal Grammar Junior School, Newcastle. And in the 9-11 age group, the successful pair were Christian Tang, 11, from Royal Grammar School and James Harper, 11, from Longbenton Community College.

There have been more than 3,000 entries nationwide, which will be reduced to 48 regional winners before the final stage.

As well as having their artwork viewed by millions, the winner will receive a trip to the Google headquarters in California with their family.