The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, Nevada, and was designed by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Early marketing employee Susan Wojcicki then spearheaded subsequent Doodles, including an alien landing on Google and additional custom logos for major holidays.

The first Google Doodle was born in the summer of 1998, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin took a vacation to the Burning Man Festival. The Doodle they created was simple, with the festival’s iconic stick man loitering behind the ‘O’, but users loved the playful addition to an otherwise simple logo.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with the concept in 1998 when they attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada. That first Doodle was as simple as putting a stick figure — similar to the Burning Man logo — behind the second “o” to signify that the founders were “out of office.”

HISTORY OF THE GOOGLE DOODLES The first doodle was designed in 1998 when co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to spoof the traditional “out-of-office” sign by placing the Burning Man logo over the second “O” in the company’s logo while both of them were at the annual arts festival in the Nevada desert.