Super Art Fight

The Greatest Live Art Competition In The Known Universe

Two artists walk up to a blank, 12-feet-long canvas. They're given a starting topic. The timer is set, and the artists have to cover the canvas in artwork in a spectacle that is as much collaborative as it is combative. At the end of the 25 minutes, the audiences chooses the winner based on their overall performance. Oh, and did I mention the artists are also given new topics every five minutes, as chosen by the audience and our random topic generator, the WHEEL OF DEATH? This, in a nutshell, is Super Art Fight. A game similar to full-contact, gladiatorial Pictionary with a tone more similar to Pro Wrestling than Bob Ross.

If it sounds ridiculous, and maybe a bit complicated, it's because you've probably never heard of anything like it before with which to compare it. Check out this video, it may help explain things a bit (or, at the least, show how cool it can be):

Behind the Canvas

A few years ago, I was working on some unsuccessful comic strips. The best result to come out of them was none of the strips themselves, but the community of artists I was able to meet in the process. Two of them, Jamie “Angry Zen Master” Noguchi and Nick “Ghostfreehood” DiFabbio, decided to take a comic convention tradition known as Iron Artist (a visual version of Iron Chef) to the next level, creating what has now become Super Art Fight. Since its inception in 2008, it has grown into a touring phenomenon with shows from San Francisco to Boston, averaging about 20 a year, growing in scope and size all the time.

Behind the scenes we're constantly making decisions to hone the show to make a better experience for the audience and artists. Over time we've experimented with different formats for the bouts, tweaking the overall timing, rules for each bout, and other ways to enhance the show. In a way we are approaching the performance as an experience for all involved, and working through the timing and logistics is something my experience as a web designer has helped to keep things organized, and has yielded some amazing moments for those of us participating and the audience.

If you're still curious to learn more, come by a show some time. There's no better way to understand the phenomenon than to see it in action.

For more about the design work I've done for Super Art Fight, check it out in the design section.