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Layer tennis is a design game made popular by Coudal Partners. Two competitors (myself & Aaron Liechty) pass design files back and forth, riffing on the same work under extreme time constraints. Each 30-minute “volley” is posted live as it is created, along with commentary thanks to Jacob Liechty.

Sondra Eisenstat agreed to help us with the thankless task of posting it all online, since the rest of us were pre-occupied with writing & designing under pressure.

The battle took place on Sunday afternoon. The full experience is still available on the Exit Strata blog, but here are the volleys:

the moving walkway is ending. Lego mini-figure in a bee outfit on a moving walkway framed against blue sky and lens flare off blinds, please watch you're step. The blinds are more prominent, radial, over a mini-figure with a helmet and axe, light exposure is blown out, and a series of winding symbols over top -- flag, frown, hand pointing left, hand making peace sign Exit stage right. Strata (layers)! The image now seems aged, sepia, and drawn over in black ink. Computer drawn scribbles and aligned white arrows over top the black pen We will not cease from exp… The image is duplicated, offset, overlaid with an old map of the world The judge ordered the merchant to cease and desist from the deceptive… The image has been printed out, crumpled, and photographed casting shadows on a white background. Again the four symbols are overlaid, and now red arrows go to (or radiate from) the left-pointing hand The previous image is constrained to a digital thought bubble emanating from five green plastic toy soldiers, now all aimed at the Lego figure in a bee outfit. Random drop shadows are scattered on the page, and a quote: I'm right here, where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Abraham Lincoln, and ghosts of snow gust across the empty road. A movie poster. Exit Strata, in the movie poster font. Blood is splattered across a topped plastic soldier, a Lego axe on the ground, and hand-drawn Lego Lincoln super-imposed. The poster is framed, and imposed on a back and white return of the old map. The map is ripped in half across the page, revealing red-line-drawn Lego Lincoln on a white background - and half the text exit strata
A game of Layer Tennis used to design a journal cover