ISO50's fourth volley from week twelve of spring 2009's Layer Tennis.
Shaun Inman's first volley in the spring '09 semifinals, sans-music.
With the Winter Olympics upon us, it’s an easy time to get swept up in the spirit of friendly competition. A little competition inspires us to be better than we usually are, and tends to inspire onlookers in the process. And so, while Shaun White and Apolo Ohno continue their press tours in Vancouver, designers and illustrators around the world will gather in front of their computers tomorrow afternoon for the opening bout in a brand new season of Coudal’s Layer Tennis.
The concept is simple. Two artists enter – they send “volleys” of graphic art back and forth, with fifteen minutes for each return – after ten rounds, the match is called and judges declare a winner. There is no prize outside of bragging rights and new friendships. We played a very similar game in college, but we called it Photoshop Street Fighter. We were punks, these guys are masters.
From Aaron Draplin's third volley in the spring '09 playoffs.
Last season was absolutely stunning, with alt-illustrators taking each other on in cartoon wars and motion graphics artists raising the bar with hi-def video and animation. Sitting at my desk at the end of the work week was a delight knowing that every fifteen minutes anything could happen and that I would walk away from it all with hundreds of new ideas.
Joakim Jansson's third volly from week thirteen of spring '09.
One of the big exciting developments last season was the emphasis on community interaction via twitter. A cleverly designed widget on the Layer Tennis site automatically pulled any tweets using the hashtag #lyt, allowing the artists to get real-time feedback from the community and judges to gauge audience reactions.
The first bout of the season, beginning tomorrow at 2pm Chicago time (that’s 3pm New York/real world time) promises to be infographicriffic with New York Times Design Director Khoi Vinh taking on Feltron Annual Reports creator Nicholas Felton with running commentary by John Nack, a member of Adobe’s Photoshop team. It’s Photoshop’s 20th anniversary, so expect these pros to show what can be done without the bells and whistles of the rest of Adobe’s Creative Suite. The Layer Tennis site also suggests that next week’s bout will be a “typographer’s throwdown.”
Even if you’re not a creative professional, Layer Tennis is a fascinating, thought-provoking and often hilarious event to watch. I know what I’m doing tomorrow afternoon, as well as all I’ll be talking about all weekend. See you there!
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