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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Congratulations to Mig Reyes, Layer Tennis Season 3 Champion.
Thanks to all the players, commentators and fans who made Season Three of Layer Tennis a big success. And thanks to the crew at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and all the folks at Adobe Creative Suite for making it possible. Watch this space (or sign up for Season Tickets or follow us on Twitter) for news about some special exhibition matches being planned and about Season 4.
Cast your votes on The Championship Match. Both Finalists will receive invitations to play in the post-season tournament for Season Four.
Here's how the voting works. Decide who you'd like to declare as winner and then simply tweet their first name following a hash mark. Either #mig or #noper and, this is important, also include #lyt in that tweet. We'll leave the voting open all weekend and announce our Season Three Champion on Monday.
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Post your comments about the match to Twitter and include #lyt in the message and they'll show up right here on our Crowd Page. Plus you can follow the official LT Twitter feed.
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