Have you ever happened to notice that the Doubeclick logo used by Google bears a very big similarity to the Auryn symbol that’s used in The Neverending Story? Those that don’t recall this story might have grown up in the early 2000’s or even in the late 90’s, but for those of us that grew up in the 80’s The Neverending Story was a powerful and gripping tale of a young man attempting to cope with his life that gets drawn into a story he never knew he was a part of until he started reading. The tale has a lot to do with the power of imagination and the ramifications if the Nothing, the all-consuming force that will destroy everything, is allowed to have its way.
In a way the Auryn, which is rendered in the symbol of two snakes intertwined with one another and biting each other’s tails, is a lot like the continual struggle between life and the Nothing. One is continually destroying while the other is creating. The Auryn was born of a very old idea that has been pervasive in human cultures since recorded history. In the story it is used as a symbol of hope that allows both Bastian and Atreyu to continue their arduous journey to give the child-like empress a name so that her world might continue.
On the other side of this article the Google Doubleclick logo is something that has changed throughout the years since Google bought out Doubleclick in 2008. The purpose behind Doubleclick is to act a subsidiary that develops and provides help with internet ads for various businesses that come to them when they need such a service. The reason behind changing the logo has been increasingly hard to find since it would seem that Google doesn’t think too much about it, but chances are that they were keeping up with the times and felt that the logo needed an upgrade of sorts.
As to the similarity between the Auryn and the Doubleclick logos there are a couple of different explanations. One is a little out there while the other is a lot more likely. The first is that whoever is tasked with redesigning the logo could have been a fan of the Neverending Story, in which case inspiration would have been fairly easy to find. Of course that means that while attempting to find a suitable logo they wracked their brain for every possible design they could find and came up with the current logo. It’s a nice thought but not entirely logical, which is why it’s my personal favorite.
The other explanation is coincidence. There are a great many circular logos in the world these days and a lot of them could be somehow linked together in one or more categories based on their similarities. The Doubleclick logo resembles the Auryn, but beyond shape and the fact that both are intertwined it doesn’t go much further. It’s an interesting thought and something worth looking at obviously but it’s too easy to debunk by citing coincidence.
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