It was 2007. Android, as we know it, didn’t really exist: it hadn’t even been publicly launched yet. Google employee Dan Morril was tasked with putting together an internal presentation for the team, so he could encourage them to start experimenting and see what they could do with the Android API. But his presentation for the second internal developer launch (nicknamed R2D2 — ‘Release to Developers 2’. Seriously) needed something extra — so he created these. The first Android logos.
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Ok, so they never made it out of Google HQ, but as Morril points out on his Google+ page (spotted by The Verge), the Googlers were quite fond of the quick mock-ups. They were soon replaced by the cute buggy green Android logo, which was created by graphic designer Irina Block, and appears on the half a billion or so devices running the operating system today.
Morril also pointed out that originally, the team wanted the Android versions to be named after famous robots (Android C3PO, anyone?), but changed their plans because the names were all trademarked. They then switched to the dessert stream they’re using today, starting with Cupcake, then Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and the most recently, JellyBean.
