How the ‘Ukraine Forever’ Filter Was Crafted to Inspire Hope
With everyone doing what they can to support Ukraine at this challenging time, creative agency VCCP have done their part by creating ‘Ukraine Forever’, an Instagram and TikTok filter that shows their support and solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Crafted to show symbols on both cheeks, the filter’s users will garner an opaque Ukrainian flag on one side of their face and Ukraine’s national symbol on the other. The filter was created within a few hours and approved within the day, prompting 3.4 million views on TikTok, 260k plays and around 12k shares. Keeping simplicity in mind, the filter was inspired by colleagues, partners, friends and family members who have been affected by recent events – and VCCP’s desire to create hope.
Nathaniel Hulley, technical production director at VCCP speaks to LBB’s Nisna Mahtani about the process and significance of creating the filter.
[Pictured above is the filter's creator Nathaniel Hulley]
LBB> ‘Ukraine Forever’ is the name of the filter. Can you tell us how you came up with the title?
Nathaniel> I wanted to keep it simple but at the same, and more importantly, I wanted to try and inspire hope.
LBB> Why was it important to create and how does social media play an increasing part in political and social matters?
Nathaniel> VCCP is a global network and within it, we have colleagues and their partners, friends and family members who are being directly affected by what's happening. Some of my own team are in our Prague office and as a result, it all has felt a bit closer to home. I think that’s why I felt that it was important to create it.
Social media plays a huge role in both society and in politics. If you look at the last six years alone some of the biggest scandals have taken place online – from the scandal of Facebook data being used in a US election to Brexit referendum filled with misinformation, to the many lies and fake news that have accompanied the pandemic and vaccinations. It has become a new world separated from reality where truths and facts are fake news and conspiracy theories that can even affect how politicians make decisions.
It’s not all doom and gloom of course and there have been incredible initiatives that have been born directly out of social media such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, #YouAintNoMuslimBruv, Fridays for Future, and the Ice Bucket Challenge movements which have all been positive changes for good which show us that society can stand together.
LBB> Why was it important to not only include the flag, but also the Ukrainian trident which we haven’t seen on many other filters?
Nathaniel> I wanted to use the flag for that simple connection. I added the trident to give it a historical significance for Ukrainians as it was adopted as their national symbol in 1992.
LBB> Was this the initial idea always to have the opaque flag placed on the user's cheek or did the design evolve through the process of creation?
Nathaniel> The design evolved throughout the process of creation. In the beginning, I experimented with interactivity through tap functionality by adding animating flags. However, it was just getting too complicated. I decided that simplicity was key so I tried to make the AR as clean and accessible as possible, so people can show their support the way they want to.
LBB> How long did it take to create and have the filter approved by Instagram? And were there any challenges to getting it up and running?
Nathaniel> I created the AR filters to work on both TikTok and Instagram/Facebook platforms using SparkAR. Spark has been around since 2017 and has a worldwide user base of about 600K+ which shows how easy it is to use. SparkAR has lots of easy presets for face tracking and templates to use. From the build to upload it took a couple of hours and it was QA approved on the same day which is great as it can normally take up to five days!
The TikTok version of the effect was created with software that is still in beta so I can’t tell you anything about that. I’d really like to, but I can’t at the moment! I will say the Discord community around the Beta are an amazing group of people from all corners of the globe.
This is the great thing about augmented reality right now; it's so easy to do and so accessible for us all to get involved with and allows for quick reactions to the changing world around us.
LBB> Were you inspired by any other social media movements e.g. the Black Lives Matter movement, ASL Ice Bucket Challenge, Dress Like a Woman, etc?
Nathaniel> Honestly, not really. I work in augmented reality in my day to day job, so this was the most organic way that I could help show support and allow other people to express themselves about what is going on in Ukraine.
LBB> What has the reaction to the filter been like so far?
Nathaniel> I’ve been so pleased by how well it’s done so far, especially on TikTok where it’s trending well. To date views of the effect are at about 3.4 million, plays at 260k and roughly 12k shares of the effect. It’s received mostly positive reactions, some comments have been mixed as you would expect. Obviously, as it is on TikTok, music plays a big part so people have been using the effect with a remix of a Black Eyed Peas - Where Is the Love? lyrics.
