The Media School

Student creation becomes internet hit

27 September 2010

Bournemouth University student Rob Hawkes has become an internet sensation after recreating a Google logo.

A 24 year old Bournemouth University student has used the most up-to-date technology to prove he’s more than a match for global giant Google.

Rob Hawkes who is studying Interactive Media Production decided to create his own version of their bouncing balls logo and became an instant internet hit.

Rob said: “When I put my version of the logo online via Twitter and my blog, the response was insane. After just a few minutes my original tweet had spread around the world and was bringing in a steady stream of visitors to the logo.”

Google’s design, which cleverly causes the balls bounce as you run your mouse over them, featured on the search engine site for just one day. But what inspired Rob to remake the logo?

“Most people were assuming and quoting that Google’s design was built in HTML5”, Rob said. “It frustrated me that so many people were assuming the wrong thing so I decided to remake it using the latest HTML5 canvas technology, just to show people how easily it could have been made in HTML5. My aim was not to prove Google wrong, rather to show that there is no reason why things like this couldn't be made using these new technologies.”

Rob explained why HTML5 was a more effective choice: “The canvas element is a 2D drawing system built right into the browser. By utilising a little bit of JavaScript to draw onto the canvas, I was able to dramatically reduce the complexity and code required to produce the same effect. In comparison, Google's version used tens of HTML tags to produce their version whereas I used just one.”

More than 200,000 people across the world have viewed Rob’s creation and more continue to log on to his blog every day.

Now that he’s showcased his skills to the world, what does the future hold for this bright young programmer? Rob said: “I have fallen in love with Bournemouth and would love to find a job here. I have been doing internships at a local digital media agency, and would love to work somewhere like that once I graduate.”