Meet An Artist Behind Naperville's Snapchat Selfies

If you’ve ever used Snapchat, you know one of the best features of the image messaging app is using and discovering new geofilters.

Geofilters are localized graphic designs that can be placed on top of photos taken in Snapchat. They’re tied to specific places, and they can offer users a glimpse into the personality of a neighborhood, village or city.

If you think Snapchat has hired a dedicated team of graphic designers to investigate and illustrate cities around the world to make geofilters, you’re wrong. Geofilters are mostly created by local artists on their own time. Their designs have to pass Snapchat’s approval process before they can be slid onto your snap.

We’ve tracked down a few of these unsung artists to ask about the secrets behind making geofilters for a top mobile app company. Svanik Tandon is just one of the artists behind the designs in front of your selfies.

Name: Svanik Tandon
Age: 14
Hometown: Naperville
Geofilter location: Naperville
Day job: Freshman at Metea Valley High School
Design experience: Self-taught Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, some logo design, freelancing

1. What made you want to create a Snapchat Geofilter?
I’ve loved drawing ever since I was a little kid, I used to draw pictures all the time. We already had a geofilter for Naperville, actually, but it didn’t appeal to anybody. My friends complained that other cities had great geofilters, so I decided to take that into my own hands. I found out I could submit my own, I read a couple tutorials, read the Snapchat rules and then I did it.

More in this series:

• Meet The Artist Behind Woodridge and Lisle’s Snapchat Selfies
• Meet The Artist Behind Elmhurst’s Snapchat Selfies
• Meet The Artist Behind La Grange and Hinsdale’s Snapchat Selfies
• Meet The Artist Behind Glen Ellyn’s Snapchat Selfies

2. What was the process for submitting your design?
On the Snapchat website, it said they were looking for different towns and different styles. I’ve always been a lover of flat design and turning buildings and architecture into flat designs. I added the iconic bell tower from downtown Naperville. I took a picture and made a cartoon, then added hills. I tried to make the text as different as possible. I made a colored outline over the text. Snapchat said to put designs at the top or bottom, and the bottom was best for the hills. I wanted to make it as cartoonish as possible and also to make it iconic of Naperville.

3. What inspired your geofilter design?
I kind of wanted the design to be something people recognized because Snapchat is a platform everybody uses here. I just wanted to represent Naperville in a better way. I just felt like the houses in the other filter don’t represent our city. Anybody who doesn’t live here would see that and think Naperville is just an average town. I wanted them to look at bell tower see it’s a green city. I knew my friends would think it’s cool. In my first year of high school, I wanted the recognition for making the geofilter, as a freshman especially. I wanted to see my work in the whole town of Naperville, accessible to anybody.

4. What was it like to see your geofilter come to life on Snapchat?
It kind of took a long time for Snapchat to respond. They said about a week, but I forgot about it until the day the email came. I was probably the happiest person alive. I started to see my filter on Twitter and people said “Svanik made it.” I like to look back and see how many people recognized that I did something. I was overwhelmed and happy. I couldn’t have been happier that day.

5. Has being a geofilter artist come with any fame or fortune?
Nothing at all really. It was a short few days of people recognizing I did this. The first days of high school, people came up and said “Oh you made the geofilter.” It faded pretty quickly, though people still use it. But it was like a small moment of wonder.

6. How does it feel to know people in the community are putting your artwork on their selfies?
It feels pretty amazing, as a matter of fact a YouTube celebrity, Jennxpenn, came to Naperville and she used that filter. I couldn’t believe it, it was such a surprise. She’s this person who millions of people follow her on Snapchat and that was my work right there.

Images courtesy of Svanik Tandon.
Know anyone else who has created local Snapchat geofilters? Email morgan.searles@patch.com.