Letterkenny artist Louise Rowland is the one to thank for our county’s newest Snapchat Geofilter as Gaeilge.
We can now add a funky splash of Donegal colours to every photo we take with the latest Irish geofilter on the Snapchat app.
Every county in Ireland now has their own design, and local illustrator Louise Rowland is the proud creator of the Dún na nGall Gaelsnap.
Louise, also known as Lou, is a 23-year-old graduate of the National College of Art and Design.
She told Donegal Woman how her distinctive design came to pop up on Snapchat:
“Last year I saw that Conradh na nGaelige organised a competition calling for submissions for their Gaelsnap campaign in which they linked up with Snapchat to create geo-filters as gaeilge.
“I jumped at the chance and my illustration was selected as the one used for Donegal – Dún na nGall! It went live on Tuesday, I’m absolutely delighted,” Lou said.
Illustrator Lou Rowland
Ireland is the top country for Snapchat usage, which is why Conradh na Gaeilge’s launched their Gaelsnap campaign.
Lou is about to start a Masters in illustration at the Glasgow School of Art after the summer holidays. Creating the Irish filter for her home county was particularly exciting, she says:
“I’m a big fan of Gaeilge myself, I used to work in Coláiste Árainn Mhóir as a cinnire so I was delighted at the chance to create something as gaeilge,” she said.
Lou has been seeing the snap through screenshots from friends as she is currently in Spain. In a similar way, this Gaelsnap will be sending the hills of Donegal all over the world through Snapchat stories.
Dr Niall Comer, President of Conradh na Gaeilge says:
“As the biggest users of Snapchat in the world, it’s fantastic to have the geofilters as Gaeilge being rolled out for Irish users today. We’d like to thank Snapchat for all their co-operation and also all the designers for submitting their amazing work.”
Orlaith Nic Ghearailt, Campaigns Awareness & Seachtain na Gaeilge Executive with Conradh na Gaeilge also welcomed the filters:
“There are now more ways than ever for people to use the Irish language on social media, and we’re delighted that Snapchat now has geofilters as Gaeilge. Facebook, Twitter and Gmail are already available in Irish so it’s brilliant to add Snapchat to the list of international companies using Irish. Conradh na Gaeilge hopes that this will encourage even more people to use whatever Irish they have on social media,” she said.
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