Ever wonder how snapchat geofilters come to be? With 3 live snapchat filters now, I’m basically a snapchat filter fiend. Snapchat has opened the doors for local artists to submit original artwork geofilters that represent their town or neighborhood. I love using community geofilters because wherever I go, there’s usually a filter that represents that city and it’s unique personality. And it’s even cooler when I get to use a geofilter that I designed myself.>>
The first filter I ever created was for Morristown, NJ. I work in Morristown, grew up nearby, and often frequented the town while growing up. Although most of my friends think of Morristown as a fun town with a great bar scene, the town is most well known for it’s rich history. One of the things Morristown is known for is The Seeing Eye School. The term “Seeing Eye” dog was coined and trademarked by the Morristown school that has helped trained thousands of dogs to assist blind people all over the country. Morris Frank and his seeing eye dog “Buddy” were the first to use the program in the US and traveled the country, bringing awareness to the cause. The statue pictured below was erected in their memory and is called “Frank and Buddy”. So the statue was the inspiration for my geofilter but I ended up learning so much about the history!
The next filter I created was for Clifton, NJ, the city I currently call home. The first filter I submitted got REJECTED! It was a hand drawn Native American with a sweet headdress and spear that said “Clifton” in a brush script font. Clifton’s mascot is a Native American chief, appearing on their website and all over the city, so I thought it would be a good way to go. When a snapchat filter doesn’t get approved, they don’t tell you specifically why it was rejected, instead they give you the list of guidelines so you can play the guessing game. It’s sort of frustrating to figure out why something was rejected but in this case I could only assume the Native American “character” can be viewed as racists and that’s a risk snapchat is not willing to take. So I scrapped that idea and went for something completely different. Clifton got it’s name for being on a cliff and has awesome views of New York City. I played around with a blue gradient to emulate the sky (or pollution haha) and faded it into the picture area, which makes this filter pretty unique.
The most recent place I created a geofilter for was for Long Beach Island, NJ… my favorite place in the world to be. 🙂 Growing up, I vacationed in LBI every summer. My grandma lives down there too, so along with many summer trips, I visit frequently all year round. My grandma’s house is on the lagoon right off the island in Beach Haven West. Currently, the existing geofilters for LBI don’t stretch across the bridge and into Manahawkin/beach haven west so rest assured, this filter covers more ground! Although these towns technically aren’t on Long Beach Island, you’re only sleeping off the island.. the beach, bars, and stores are just over the bridge where most of your time is spent. When you go to those towns, you go to LBI… the town name is just a technicality. So with a hand drawn font and some watercolor brushes in photoshop, a new geo-filter is born!
Now, on demand geofilters have been rolled out by snapchat, allowing brands and every day snapchat users to create custom, temporary filters for their events. You have to pay for them to go live but duration and proximity play a factor in costs so I imagine it would be somewhat affordable. So if you want to create a custom filter for a party, I’m your graphic designer gal 😉 or submit your own!