Google Features Student Logo Contest Winners

Doodling may not be encouraged during class, but maybe it should be. Google is promoting the designers of tomorrow — and more importantly, the dreamers of today — on its homepage today.

The above logo is the winning design in the the 2011 "Google 4 Doodle" logo competition, in which site users voted on their favorite Google logos (or doodles, as Google calls them) created by US students (K-12).

The top prize this year goes to 7-year-old Matteo Lopez of San Francisco, whose design above won him a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his school, in addition to being featured today on the Google.com homepage.

Titled "Space Life," Matteo says his design was inspired by his desire to "become an astronaut and explore space life. I want to wear a space suit, fly in space, walk on the moon and make friends with aliens in other planets." (More from Matteo in the WSJ's profile.)

Click here to view all 40 regional finalists' Google logo designs — winnowed down from 107,00 entries and 400 state finalists this year — who won a trip to the Google New York office for an awards ceremony yesterday, where they received a t-shirt printed with their doodles on it.

All 40 Regional Finalists will also have their doodle displayed in a special exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York that will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, while the top three winners also received a $5,000 educational grant to be used at the school of his or her choice and a Wacom digital design tablet.