2020-03-01_Fast_Company

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020

40 FASTCOMPANY.COM ILLUSTRATION BY GINKO YANG

Long before building the first

prototype of Snapchat, in 2011,

Spiegel and cofounder Bobby

Murphy worked on a platform

called Future Freshman, which helped

prospective college students manage the

application process. Spiegel was the de-

signer. Murphy was the engineer. Together,

they worked 18-hour days for weeks, side by

side, living off takeout, sleeping on-site, and

ultimately building a product that flopped.

“Despite that going nowhere, we really

enjoyed working together,” says Murphy.

“Partly, we were friends. But we also had

different skill sets coming into our project,

me being more on the development side and

him being much more on the design side.”

The handoff that needs to happen be-

tween design and engineering was “super

easy,” Spiegel attests. “We were sitting at the table together. Literally,

you don’t have to try—it just happens, right?”

That dynamic worked when Snapchat was two people, and

even when it was 20. But between 2015 and 2016, the staff bal-

looned from 600 people to almost 1,900. All those new folks, while

talented, lacked the Spiegel-Murphy shorthand.

Spiegel adapted poorly. As has been widely reported, he turned

inward. If he aspired to be the next Steve Jobs, he seemed to have

adopted the worst parts of the archetype, demanding full strate-

gic oversight and creating a culture of secrecy. Snapchat was still

a fun-loving viral sensation on the outside, but Spiegel came to

realize that he had built an organization he didn’t recognize, some-

thing that was making him personally miserable.

Spiegel—the same CEO who once told a 38-year-old journal-

ist confused by Snapchat’s user experience, “You’re not really the

target”—embarked on a quest for self-improvement. “I mean,

obviously I’ve never done this before,” says Spiegel, jocularly, of be-

coming a CEO at 21. “I think I’ve basically had to learn everything.”

He began by enlisting CEO adviser Steve

The

company

shows off

its tech—

and bur-

nishes

its cool—

via artist

collabora-

tions.

SNAP

X ART

Augmented

Reality

Snap wanted to show

how AR can unlock

a creator’s intent and

offer deeper insight than

a surface image.

The company’s engi-

neers developed

algorithms to collate

videos based on their

aural features.

Spectacles 3 glasses

added a second camera

so wearers can record

in 3D and add effects

with real depth.

Scan brings Snap’s AR

into the real world,

unlocking fun and use-

ful info.

Sound

Murals

Alex Israel works in multi-

media, often playing

with the slickness of L.A.

and celebrity culture.

Christian Marclay has

translated sound into

physical form, melding

the two into art pieces,

for 40 years.

Harmony Korine is

known for his provoca-

tive films, which

feature a “crystal meth

aesthetic.”

Juan Hector Ponce

and Hector Rios are

renowned Los Angeles

graffiti artists and

street muralists.

Israel added AR effects,

including a palm

tree emerging from

his head (1), to five

self-portraits.

Marclay created such

works as a piano that

displays snaps on a

screen (2) when specific

notes are struck.

Duck Duck (3), a short

film Korine shot on Spec-

tacles, stars a dancing

hot dog and other Snap

effects IRL.

Users could point

the Snapchat camera

at the site of five lost

works and they’d magi-

cally reappear.

3D

MARCH/APRIL 2020

Technology Artist Project

1

2

3

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