Who is Robert Indiana, designer behind Google’s Valentine’s Day Doodle?

Today is Valentine’s Day and Google has a Doodle, based on the design of Robert Indiana, to match the romantic holiday.

In the past, Google Valentine’s Doodles mostly consisted of alterations based on Valentine’s-themed fonts and/or pictures. In 2011, however, the Doodle looks nothing like the Valentine’s Doodles of the past.

That’s because Robert Indiana is nothing like Dennis Hwang, Google’s official Doodler.

Indiana was a highly successful artist in the Pop Art movement in the 1960s and 1970s. He is currently 82 years old and first created the design seen in Google’s 2011 Valentine’s Doodle back in 1964.

The design originally spelled out the word “LOVE” and was used for a Christmas card of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In subsequent years, the iconic design was put on US stamps and physically constructed in various locations across the US and around the world.

For 2011’s Valentine’s Day, Google’s Doodle is simply the design of Indiana’s “LOVE” and but spelling out the world “Google.”

This isn’t the first time the LOVE design is adapted to another word. In 2008, Indiana used the design on the word HOPE to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.