About a week ago I had a sick idea (I’m prone to have them) about getting a bit more personal with my readers (that’s you guys & gals). Comments, Twitter & Facebook are all very nice and dandy but they don’t provide too much personal involvement. Thus, Contagion was born. Contagion is a Layer Tennis style game between myself and another player. My first victim was my good buddy, owner of Echo Enduring Blog and all around good guy, Matt Ward.
First off, let me explain the game for you. Contagion is a game for graphic designers meant to exercise rapid inspiration and execution, as well as being a means for designers to learn new practices from each other. Contagion has no winner. It is as much a game as playing with toy trucks is. The game itself and its outcome provide entertainment beyond a score.
The two players decide upon a theme (subject) of the game. There are no limitations to what the theme may be, other than mutual agreement upon it by the players.
The first player starts with a blank canvas (International A2, 300 DPI, RGB), using a common graphics software. The first player creates a new layer and begins to create the first wave by designing something based on the agreed theme.
After a maximum of 30 minutes, the first player must provide the source file to the second player. The second player then begins to design upon the first player’s wave in a new layer, thus developing the theme further. The game lasts for 10 waves, with 5 waves per player. The game ends with the 10th wave, which corresponds to the second player. All layers must be delivered to the opposite player as raster layers. Players are not allowed to delete parts of any previous waves, even their own.
They are allowed to cover parts of the previous waves with new designs, though, in order to stay within the spirit of the game, it’s recommended that said covering should not extend to the entire canvas, thus discarding previous waves.
So, it’s a bit different than the original Layer Tennis and the first game in what I hope to be a long series has proven that very well. Matt and I played for about 7 hours, all the while keeping in touch via Skype. The game has a very nice way of forcing you to talk about things (even non design related) without it being uncomfortable. There’s also the increasing curiosity of what the end result is and towards the end both I and Matt referred to the game as “our design” instead of “the design”. Spending a few hours on a collaboration like this has a lot more benefits than just a pretty picture at the end. There’s an invaluable human connection being set up which really just makes the game that much more fun.
But enough of this blabber. Matt and I agreed to work on the subject of “Flood“. So, let’s see how the rounds played out, with full commentary by yours truly!
The first wave was mine. I tried to set a bit of a general mood here, without too much detail, letting Matt build up on this structure.
Matt responded with a simple, yet to the point typographic treatment.
In typical Sickdesigner tradition, I proceeded to go nuts with some over burnt abstract waves, and a slight vignette at the top.
This was clearly becoming a battle of order vs. chaos as Matt plunged in with some very sharp shards.
By the halfway point of the match I struck another chaotic blow by expanding the palette into what I can only describe as an LSD fueled wet dream.
Matt played into my chaos with a subtle grunge texture and introduced a mystical character. She reminded me of the Lady of the Lake.
I responded with a tighter color correction and played with the message a bit more.
Being an English Lit major, Matt quickly articulated the catch phrase and consolidated the water theme with a central ripple.
In my last wave, I took out the ol’ trusty tablet and really fluid-ized the heck out the whole design. Liquid love, baby!
The last round was, of course, Matt’s. Here’s where his writing skills came into effect, as well as a solid set of retro lights to seal the deal.
It’s been quite an experience this first episode of Contagion both in a graphic sense and in a human relations sense. I may have stumbled upon my favorite game yet. Well, apart from real tennis, that is.
I hope you enjoyed this little experiment and here’s to many more. See you later, my sick little puppies!
I want to do one with you when I get some free time.
Jad, you were already on the list. I just need to get through some of the early “subscribers” but we can chat over Twitter and fit you in the calendar. I’m super stoked you want in on this little game of mine! Thanks!
I agree ‘whisper’ was a bit of juxtaposition but text is always dangerously ambiguous. This reminds me particularly of those strange messages you see written on notebooks and other random things at Korean stationary stores. It might come close to Engrish but I might like it more for that.
P.S Is that contact link working? Have an idea for you to look at.
Thanks for the comment, it’s quite an interesting opinion you have. In a good way! There is a sort of suspense filled atmosphere to the design, and it does remind me too of Asian culture. Thanks for pointing that out. Feel free to contact me via Twitter. The server guys haven’t yet fixed the problem. But they will.
Really fun to read. Kudos to Matt for covering your spermy thingies in slide 5!
Any dates set for Cont.#2?
In my defense, I wasn’t paying enough attention and instead of drops of liquid, it came out as “spermy thingies”. And slide 5 was mine, not Matt’s. So I covered my own spermy thingies. Wait, what? Hopefully, round 2 will be online next Monday, but that really all depends on the availability of other players.
This is INSANE! Love it! I hadn’t heard of Layer Tennis so I was checking that out yesterday. This is way cooler!
Thanks, Bill! Hey, you’re welcomed to play a game if you’d like. I know I’d like to shoot a few waves with you. Might be interesting, ey?
You got it! I was thinking the same thing!
This is insane stuff…. definitely a battle between order and chaos… but blissfully ended in a ragnarok…
Good choices on color treatment. Imho, the message “then her whisper……” sort-of agitates the equilibrium.. the type, i mean.. not really sure though!
But, this is indeed a great combination of retro, future, surreal and stuff
kudos for the excellent game of layer tennis!
This was a lot of fun to do, and it was great to get in as the first to play the game with Radu. Pretty happy with the way that the design turned out too!
Thanks for coming up with such an awesome idea, Radu, and for posting the progress. It’s so interesting to move through the different waves!
I would be interested in a round, if it’s alright to request to be added to the list. I think this is a great idea, thanks for sharing it.
Hey, Bobby. Yeah, sure, everyone’s invited. Is it ok if I send you an e-mail to discuss the details?
Of course, mate, please do. My apologies for not seeing this sooner, I had to road-trip through the weekend for work.