Cut & Paste Digital Design Competition - San Francisco

What an event!  I have to say, this is the first time I've ever been to an event where graphic design was considered cool.  Huge stage, gigantic projections screens, bangin' music and a packed house of hundreds (probably nearly 1000) people.

Poster, competitor badge, program guide and competitor card:

Closeups of the program:

And my badge:

The day started off with the motion design competitors arriving early.  We were shooting to start at noon, but had some delays setting up so we bumped the start time back to 1pm.

There were a total of 5 competitors in the motion design event.  We were given 8 hours to complete a 15 second animation.  The rules stated that we could bring in a total of 4 assets (photos, video clips, models, etc), fonts and music.

I have to admit that I was EXTREMELY nervous throughout at the day.  I was by far the least experienced competitor in the motion design category with practically zero professional experience.  In comparison, my fellow competitors had anywhere from 5 to 11 years of experience and it showed!  My gut was in a knot for several hours and as the end neared I felt like sneaking out the back door and running home.

The room began to fill with people at around 7pm.  As people trickled in, our computer screens were displayed on the large monitors facing the audience so people could see what we were working on.  Let me tell you, this is nerve racking (especially since at that point I was behind and frantically trying to assemble my project).

By 8pm, the 2D competition began while we were still finishing up.  The 2D division consisted of 2 rounds of 20 minute competition.  Designers were given a theme ahead of time and then battled it out on stage in front of a huge crowd as an MC called the action play by play.  It was really exciting!  Well, as exciting as graphic design can get.

We finished our work around 9pm and were brought on stage around 10pm to present our work and be judged.

I'm literally biting my nails trying to get this thing wrapped:

Here's the view from the stage.  That's me on the right with my headphones on trying to tune out the action going on around me:

And finally, the motion design competitors are brought on stage.  That's us sitting on stage with our necks craning up to see the video screens:

And my 15 minutes of fame:

Though I'm slightly disappointed that the work I presented was not my best, I'm extremely honored to have had the opportunity to compete.  As a recent graduate, this was an amazingly challenging event to have participate in.

For more photos and videos, check out the SF Cut & Paste page here:

http://cutandpaste.com/events/2009/feb/28/sanfrancisco-2009/

For those of you interested in design, Cut & Paste is on a worldwide tour and may be coming to a city near you!

Toronto, London, Milan, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong are all coming up.

Check out the Cut & Paste website for all the info:

http://cutandpaste.com/tours/