Layers add visual interest. I think the best lesson I learned as a painter was how to let a color show through from underneath a layer of paint. Sometimes this color--even though it wasn't the color of choice in the end somehow creates a visual vibration and it makes it much less flat and creates a sense of depth and atmosphere that is hard to achieve with just a single layer of paint. So I think when I'm designing something (ie a sports memory mate) this is a big part of what I'm thinking as I work up the image. This so far is the most complex memory mate design I've made in terms of layers and depth(I hope I can pull it off with every girl's individual photo in this design!). When I started to design this this afternoon I had no idea that it would end up looking like this and I admit, every time I made the decision to do something that would take a bit of time and add complexity I considered having my head examined. The notion that time is money in business gets lost on me when I'm doing these--to me it is more important to make something unique and good and not be concerned how long it takes to do it. SayerMotter photographs and design by Richard Sayer. Below are a couple of the goofy team photos I took for the girls--its incredibly important to me to have fun and make sure the subjects do too!