Too much attention goes to the second word in “Layer Tennis”. It’s gotten to the point where the league commissioner has issued an edict banning players from the use of tennis-related imagery in their volleys this season. (Those of us who don the mustard yellow blazer and sit in the vaunted Commentators Booth are no less guilty of the occasional strained tennis metaphor, though I personally see the game as more analogous to chess).
No, the more important word, the one that captures the essence of the game, is the first one. Layer. At the heart of any good game or sport is a simple premise. Put the ball in the hoop. Capture the opposing player's king. Cross the finish line first. And in our case: Add an interesting new layer.
There are the literal layers — the multi-layered graphic documents the players exchange with each volley. But there are also layered meanings. This then, is the question each player must answer with every volley other than the serve: How can you best add something new to what has come before? Some of the best plays are those which add the least graphically but the most semantically — and some of the worst are those which are visually impressive but bear no connection to the previous volleys.
This week's match is a doozy. On one side, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, a graphic designer's graphic designer, with a keen sense of branding. On the other, Brendan Dawes, "interactive" designer, which is just a fancy way of saying that he's just as likely to create a volley by writing code as he is by drawing. (Kalmikoff's potential secret weapon: the horde of crowdsourced designers behind Threadless.)
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by John Gruber.
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Tomorrow we continue our series of live, experimental Layer Tennis Exhibitions with a motion graphics match between Matt Smithson and Daniel Oeffinger. As usual, the action starts at 2pm Chicago time. Check the time in your area. What is unusual is that the match won't finish until next Thursday. We'll be posting two layers per weekday. We've always wondered what would happen if we gave a couple artists a lot more time to do each volley and this week we'll find out. Commentary is by Jason Koxvold, who knows a little something about LYT and mo-graf. Jason's Match Preview has been posted and so has the coin-flip.
Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th
Layer 10 is up. And that's a wrap! Big thanks to Sam, Naz, Mark, and all the fans. No voting this week, but be sure to sign up for Season Tickets and be the first to get match info and learn how to play in our qualifying matches. Layer Tennis is taking a week off, we'll see you back here on March 19th for our fourth exhibition match.
The coin-flip and Match Preview are up for today's live Photographic Exhibition Match. We're almost set to go. Tweet your comments and include #lyt and then follow the chatter on our Crowd Page. And if you don't have 'em already, sign up for Free Season Tickets for news, contests and maybe even a chance for you to take the court this season.
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