It’s time for one of the more, um… “interesting” slots at The Future of Web Design conference. It’s a live battle of the sexes with Photoshop as the weapon of choice. Whatever you do, don’t call it layer tennis.
Andy Clarke is the compére. He gets the show on the road by introducing the contestants one by one:
With the introductions out of the way, the game kicks off. The boys win the toss and elect to let the ladies go first.
While Jina makes strange amalgamations of Malarkey and robots, Andy sits down for a chat with Elliot and Jon. Jon is sharing insights into life at Rissington. Apparently John has taught him to swear properly.
A Twitter from the audience: Mr. Hicks, you’re rocking the pipe and beer but where are the slippers and flat cap?
Did I neglect to mention that they’re all drinking some very nice Belgian beer.
30 seconds for the first round. Meanwhile Elliot explains the challenges in going freelance like getting dressed in the morning. With that, the first five minutes are up.
Second round. The boys get Photoshopping and the girls sit down for a chat. While Hannah explains the revenue model for Last.fm, the lads pull up embarrassing pictures of Andy like the one where’s he drinking out of pineapple when we visited the Tonga Room.
Andy quizzes Jina on the differences between agency work and working for a large unnamed company.
Next round. Hannah has control of the decks. Andy says he’s trying to ignore what’s been constructed on screen. Inevitably, he quizes Jon on the Firefox logo. Jon tells the tale of receiving an enquiry from Burning Monkey Software, could we get a monkey on fire wrapped around a planet?
Since doing the Silverback icon, he gets asked to do more primates.
30 seconds left on the clock for this round.
Time’s up. The ladies have created a lovely montage. Now it’s time for the last volley. The boys really need to pull out all the stops.
The conversation between Jina and Andy resumes. They’re talking about creativity and other such designery things.
At this point, the alarm on Jina’s iPhone (which has been deposited somewhere near me) starts to go off. I must spend five minutes trying desperately to find it and switch it off. Just as I manage that, the Photoshop battle ends. Who won?