By: chorne (founder of Filta)

The big question: Why is Filta needed?

In short: To celebrate artists and their work

The idea for Filta came while I was freelancing as a face filter artist. I realized that there was no way for me to go full-time just creating my own work. Unless something in the ecosystem changed...my best case scenario was creating work for corporate marketing departments for the rest of my life. I didn’t believe that pre-existing platforms would ever build the thing I needed. And even if they magically did - I didn’t trust the platforms to follow it up with the tender love and care that I felt like the community deserved***.***

Credit: Memecrunch

The status quo was borderline abusive. Why would that ever change?

So I went looking for alternatives and....nothing existed. There were weird ways of selling files on Gumroad or taking CashApp payments and sending secret URLs to unlisted lenses but.....why? That’s difficult and time-consuming and just fucking dumb. No manual intervention should be needed.

With no alternatives available - I figured there HAD to be a bunch of artists with the same problem as me: annoying shitty tools, thousands (millions?!) of fans, and no way to sell work directly to them. If there are enough of us...we could create our own awesome community with our own amazing tools, and really focus on celebrating artists and their work. I was the right mix of frustrated, optimistic, and naive to think “Yeah - I should build this.”

Photo Credit: University for the Creative Arts

Why “celebrate” and not something else? For some reason art needed to win an Oscar, hang in the MoMa, etc. etc. for it to gain respect. With the rise of NFTs in 2021 that view has shifted suddenly and significantly...but face filters and digital fashion have mostly been left behind. By properly celebrating artists and giving their work the attention it deserves we will change the perception.

So that’s why we exist and why we do what we do. If you want to help us on our mission - hop in the Discord and get involved. We need as much help as we can get.