January's New-Years-letter
Happy New Year! To kick off 2023, we are excited to recap all the holiday content we made and shared throughout the month of December. We would like to say thank you to our clients and business partners, and we look forward to creating and collaborating with you all throughout 2023.
HANUKKAH LIGHTS 🕎
We would like to wish a Happy first day of Hanukkah to all those who celebrate! Users can pretend to blow on the screen to light the Menorah. Scan the snapcode or click the link below to try “Light the Menorah”!
Follow us on Snapchat @baretreemedia and tune in to see all the new and exciting AR content we will be releasing to Snapchat in the coming year.
LIGHT THE MENORA
PUT YOUR UGLY SWEATER ON 🧶
For National Ugly Sweater day on December 17, our AR team created a voice-activated, interactive try-on lens featuring ugly sweaters designed by BTM team members. We even created a BTM-themed sweater!
Click here or scan the snapcode to try “BTM Ugly Sweater Lens!"
SEASONS GREETINGS WITH SAMSUNG ❄️
What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with some Samsung Themes? We collaborated with a number of brands to bring some holiday cheer to Samsung Galaxy users’ devices. See them below.
The Smurfs Christmas Cheer
Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and crew are bringing the Christmas spirit to your Samsung devices. This theme is perfect Christmas customization. Click here to download the latest Smurf theme from Galaxy Store.
Betty Boop Loves Christmas
We love the holidays almost as much as Betty does! Betty invites Galaxy users to get into the holiday spirit with her latest Samsung Theme. Click here to download “Betty Boop: Loves Christmas” from the Galaxy Store.
Garfield Christmas With Friends
Gather by the fireside and around the tree with Garfield and friends this holiday season. Make messaging the ones you love this holiday season even more festive with the “Garfield: Christmas With Friends” Samsung Theme, available now in the Galaxy Store.
IN OTHER NEWS 📱
Spotify Wrapped is the most wonderful time of the year for music listeners around the world! Twitter users flocked to share how they listened throughout 2022 and when liking any tweet with the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped, they could trigger a fun design. It was truly amazing to witness how many Twitter users engaged with our branded like on the wrapped release date.
It’s time to get holly and jolly with the Golden Girls! Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia, and Rose will keep your friends “laughing all the way” with their holiday sticker pack. Click here to find it in the Galaxy Store.
We're Growing The Team! 🌱
We are currently hiring for the following positions within the company:
If any of these sounds like you or someone you know, send a resume and portfolio link to info@baretreemedia.com.
December's Newsletter
To kick off the month of December, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the month of November in this issue of our newsletter. We would like to say thank you to our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Check out our social media pages in the next few weeks for some ho-ho-holiday surprises. Our pages will be filled with fun and festive content to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year!
✨ ENCHANTED WITH DISENCHANTED ✨
Raise your hand if you are an OG Enchanted fan (all of our hands are raised *very* high)! Our team had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Disney to design eight animated stickers for the release of Enchanted’s sequel, Disenchanted. We loved seeing our favorite characters—Giselle, Robert, and Prince Edward—come to life.
Click the link below to see them all on Walt Disney Studios’ official GIPHY page and be sure to catch Disenchanted on Disney+.
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS GIPHY
KEEP CALM AND TWEET ON 🗣
What better way to kick off the holiday season than with Twitter branded likes? See our Twitter Feed for some of the work that was designed and released this month.
#TheSantaClauses
Scott Calvin is now on TV! Our design and animation teams had the opportunity to create a branded like to promote the premiere of Disney’s newest holiday mini-series, the Santa Clauses. By liking any tweet with #TheSantaClauses, Twitter users watched Scott Calvin transform into Santa in just a matter of seconds.
#GlassOnion
Who doesn’t love a good mystery? This branded like had fans of Knives Out (and Chris Evans) excited for the November 23rd premiere of the franchise’s newest installment, Glass Onion.
#SpreadingChristmasCheer
Our animation and design teams helped European grocery brands Lidl, Tesco, and ASDA get creative in promoting products and deals for the upcoming holiday season. Each brand’s custom design was attached to a unique trigger hashtag. ASDA even got a little help from everyone’s favorite, Buddy the Elf.
THANKFUL FOR THEMES 📱
We are oh so thankful that we get to design themes for well-known brands. This month, we collaborated with Betty Boop and Dungeons and Dragons to bring fans some custom theme designs. Click the links below to download “Romantic Rebel” and “DND: Stacked Against the Odds” from the Galaxy store today.
D&D STACKED AGAINST THE ODDS
BETTY BOOP: ROMANTIC REBEL
#VOTE 🇺🇸
November 08, 2022 marked midterm elections in the United States. This Instagram camera effect encourages not just our fans but everyone to get out and vote. To vote for a change, every voice matters. Find our "Vote for a Change" filter on Instagram Camera or on our effects page.
FREAKY FREEBIE 🎃
Halloween may be over, but for our spooky season lovers, we have a freaky freebie for you. Check out Snapchat page @baretreemedia and click here to try
"Pumpkin Head Ghost!"
We're Growing The Team! 🌱
We are currently hiring for the following positions within the company:
Project Manager
2D Illustrator & Animator
If any of these sounds like you or someone you know, send a resume and portfolio link to info@baretreemedia.com.
November's Newsletter
To kick off the month of November, we are excited to recap all the *spooktacular* creative content we made and shared throughout the month of October in this issue of our newsletter. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility, and we hope everyone had a great Halloween!
STUDIO SPOTLIGHT 🔦
Meet Wendy, our summer illustration and animation sprout! Wendy worked closely with our senior illustrator and AR/animation teams to create her own personal sticker pack for GIPHY, Tenor, and iMessage.
We will miss Wendy and look forward to seeing all her future creations! Please scroll down to learn more about the personal project she worked on while
interning at the studio.
“Through Tea for Teaspoon, I got to explore so many of my interests, like character design, complex rigging, and 3D animation. With the help of my coworkers, I was finally able to accomplish my dream of designing my own personal sticker pack, while also challenging myself to learn new skills”
TEA FOR TEASPOON 🍵
Nothing is more rewarding than seeing our summer interns’ projects come to life.
O.M.Tea! Meet Teaspoon—a mighty, fearsome matcha-thief brewing with mischief. Keep an eye out on your own cup, for you never know where he’ll pop up next…maybe even in your messages?! For Wendy’s personal project, she used Maya to create animated 3D stickers inspired by some of her favorite things!
“I thought about the things I love and wouldn't mind working on for 6 months. I settled on matcha, hamsters, and deer. I also drew inspiration from the sticker packs I personally use. Taking all of this into account, I designed 21 silhouettes, narrowed it down to 8 thumbnails, and finally iterated on 1 design. That's how
I ended up with Teaspoon!”
As an animation student at Northeastern University, Wendy was able to explore the entire pipeline—character concept, color, modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, and animating. She was able to develop marketable skills across multiple disciplines. Her favorite part was getting to design all of Teaspoon’s expressions!
Click the link below to download these 3D animated stickers from the App Store. You can also find them on GIPHY and Tenor. They are sure to last you an oolong time.
DOWNLOAD TEA FOR TEASPOON
IT'S FREE!
HALLOWEENISH HIGHLIGHTS 🎃
Hocus Pocus
The Sanderson Sisters are back and spookier than ever! Our illustration and animation teams had the opportunity to design some animated stickers for their return. Find them on GIPHY, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Put on your best Halloween costume, pour yourself a big glass of witches brew, and watch Hocus Pocus 2, available now on Disney Plus.
Smurfs Halloween Samsung Theme
Are you ready to have a smurfalicious Halloween? Get spooooky with the Smurfs and download The Smurfs: Fright Club Samsung Theme from the Galaxy Store.
Halloween Samsung Icon Pack
Our illustration team wanted to share their love for Halloween with Samsung users. Customize your Samsung device with this Halloween-themed icon pack. Each icon was created by our team and contains a little design with a ghoulish twist! Download from the Galaxy Store today.
KEEP CALM AND TWEET ON 🗣
There’s nothing we love more than designing Twitter branded likes and hashtags for our partners! See our Twitter Feed for some of the work that was created and released this month.
#SmileMovie
Started off spooky season with a smile! Our design and animation teams had the opportunity to create a branded like to promote the premiere of fall’s newest psychological horror film, Smile! Don’t let the smile fool you…(we’d know)!
#IWTV
Fans of the original Interview With a Vampire were in for a treat! Using dark and light mode play, a concept we began to incorporate into our designs at the start of the new year, Twitter users in dark mode now get an extra surprise when they hit the like button. The Interview With a Vampire series is available to watch now on AMC.
#withAMEX
We got to help American Express members get ready for Member Week. By liking any tweet with #withAmex, Twitter users not only received reminders for all the offers and experiences available but also got to see our design and animation skills at work.
#InternationalCoffeeDay
We’d like a cup of that coffee! As the exclusive creator of branded likes for the Middle East regions, we had the opportunity to use our design skills to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s #InternationalCoffeeDay.
BRANDED HASHTAGS #️⃣
Designing Twitter emojis for branded hashtag campaigns brings us joy! Kraft Mac & Cheese, CheezIt, and BRAVO are some of the many brands we did projects for this month. Check out our website to see some of our other Twitter branded hashtag work.
We're Growing The Team! 🌱
We are currently hiring for the following positions within the company:
Augmented Reality (AR) Developer
If any of these sounds like you or someone you know, send a resume and portfolio link to info@baretreemedia.com.
Summer 2022 Newsletter
We are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the summer in this issue of our newsletter. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
Team Spotlight - Raquel Fioroti
Meet Raquel, our graphic design sprout! This summer, Raquel worked closely with our senior illustrator and licensing team to execute design concepts for messaging stickers, Twitter emojis, and Samsung themes. We are going to miss Raquel greatly and look forward to seeing all the amazing things she accomplishes in her senior year at MassArt! Scroll down to learn more about the personal project she worked on while interning at the studio.
“Through real-life projects, I was able to develop my skills in Adobe programs, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects. I learned about licensing for digital marketing and distributions and made some pretty cool connections with people working in those industries.”
We love seeing our summer interns get creative and work on projects that address causes important to them. #NationalThriftShopDay is not only about supporting local thrift shops but about bringing awareness to their charitable missions. For Raquel’s personal project, she designed a GIF to highlight one of the most popular thrift spots in the Boston area: Buffalo Exchange. As for what Raquel learned throughout this process, she found that she was able to showcase her design and animation skills, as well as create connections with the Greater Boston community.
“The design team at BTM was very open to me applying and learning skills even outside of my official job title. This project was challenging, but it was very rewarding to be able to bring awareness to shopping locally and second-hand. The best part was the shoutout I received from Buffalo Exchange…that was pretty cool!”
Read below to learn more about the other thrift shops Raquel highlighted (and may even create more GIFs for):
- Boomerangs: funds goes to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts
- Garment District: provide affordable clothing and costumes, always putting clothes to be recycled and reused, even after being on their racks
- Urban Renewals (Family Thrift Center): sell not only clothes, but toys, electronics, furniture, and jewelry too
Branded Likes for KSA
BTM takes on KSA! In case you missed it on our socials last month, Twitter named us the exclusive design studio of branded likes for the North America, Europe, and Middle East regions. On July 27th, our first branded like went live for Twitter users in Saudi Arabia. This design was created for stc pay, a mobile wallet that can be used to pay bills and send money to friends and family. We loved having the opportunity to bring branded likes to overseas advertisers and cannot wait for more designs to go live in the near future.
Smurfs X ZEPETO Announcement
In case you missed it on our socials, we are beyond excited to officially announce our partnership with IMPS The Smurfs & Lafig Belgium. We are working together to design and bring virtual goods within ZEPETO, Asia’s largest metaverse platform.
Bare Tree Media has worked with IMPS The Smurfs in the past to provide audiences with a variety of digital content, including but not limited to, branded mobile messaging applications, Snapchat AR experiences, Samsung Themes, watch faces, and a GIPHY channel. The initial launch includes Smurfs-themed 2D and 3D branded apparel and accessories. These items are available exclusively to ZEPETO’s global audience. More details announced at: https://bit.ly/ZEPETOlaunch
“This is such a ‘smurftastic’ opportunity to launch a popular branded IP, such as The Smurfs, into the metaverse with a leading metaverse partner such as ZEPETO. We are thrilled to offer ZEPETO’s global audience of 300 million users an opportunity to customize their avatars and metaverse experience with The Smurfs-branded digital goods collection…” – Robert Ferrari, president of Bare Tree Media
National Ice Cream Month
July is National Ice Cream month and our design, animation, & AR teams collaborated to bring our audiences *sweet* visual experiences.
Inspired by early 2000s computer games, our lead illustrator, Danielle, designed an ice cream vending machine game for our audiences. While fully leaning into the nostalgia of the 2000s, she also wanted to bring a new and modern approach to this design. Although the storyboarding sketches below show an ice cream purchase gone wrong, we decided that everyone should be a winner during National Ice Cream month!
Rudy, our motion graphics intern, brought Danielle’s 2000s vision to life through animation. By animating the “start game” and selection processes, users feel as though they are playing the game and receiving the ice cream themselves. A flashing sign with celebratory confetti appears when users are notified they have won the game.
Wanting to bring some sweetness to our Snapchat channel, our AR designer, Wayne, designed a simple randomizer lens inspired by Danielle’s design. When users end a video, an ice cream from the machine is randomly selected. National Ice Cream month may be over, but you can’t go wrong with a big scoop of your favorite flavor of this frosty dessert. Try out “Ice Cream Machine” by clicking here.
GIPHY Artist Channel Feature
Introducing GIPHY clips! This feature allows designers to upload animations that include sound. Our Bastille Day clip was featured alongside our other GIFs on GIPHY’s artist channel.
Back to Boston
Boston-based team members have been getting together weekly to work in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hybrid work weeks provide flexibility, as well as an opportunity for new hires to meet long-standing staff. Team members were able to work collaboratively on design projects, discuss strategy, and even participate in a few bonding activities, including a Workbar birthday party!
Bare Tree Media Named Exclusive Design Agency of Twitter
Boston, MA – June 30, 2022 — Twitter named Bare Tree Media the exclusive design studio of branded likes for the North America, Europe, and Middle East regions. For the last year, Bare Tree Media worked with Twitter ArtHouse to design custom branded likes for Twitter and their clients.
As part of a beta program, Twitter offered the creation of branded likes to only a select few advertisers. Branded likes are attached to any tweet that contains a brand-specific hashtag and are live for 24 hours on the platform. As limited edition campaigns, they drive hashtag and tweet engagement. Advertisers love branded likes and the awareness they bring their companies. As of June 30th, branded likes will now be offered to a wider audience of advertisers on Twitter.