Layer Tennis

While doing some research on web design and the likes, I've come across something incredible. And it's incredible because the people making it happen are nothing short of fantastic designers. The cream of the crop, shall we say.

To explain the concept of layer tennis, I defer to the wise words of Jason Santa Maria, who has played the game twice:

For those uninitiated with Layer Tennis, the premise is simple: two players trade a Photoshop document back and forth, each player has 15 minutes to iterate on the previous “volley” however they see fit. The matches are played live on Friday afternoons, and people follow along and comment via Twitter. It really isn’t about winning or losing, which is determined by voting on Twitter, it’s more of a exercise in visual literacy and design constraints. Also, it’s just a game and a fun distraction on a Friday afternoon.

Fuck if my fun distractions on a Friday afternoon are this good looking. To exemplify what's been happening so far, here's a few links to some of these "layer tennis" matches. Mind you that all of them are accompanied by some form of commentary, either written on the page, as an audio or even a video stream.

Without further ado...


Yup, this last one is hand made.

This has got me thinking how having tr00 Photoshop skillz is just a piece of the pie to be doing an exercise this constrained. You gotta have a great eye and a lot of quick thinking imagination to readily figure out what needs to be done in order step it up a notch from the previous "volley".

True artists, these guys. Yet another win over at Coudal Partners.