BERLIN · What a night! Last Thursday we presented Cut&Paste Berlin, the live digital design battle at Volksbühne Berlin. We were very excited about the event and it totally exceeded all expectations in terms of the amazing talent and confidence of the designers and the expertise of the judges.

Cut&Paste was founded by John Fiorelli #4002 in 2006 to shine a light on the design process and give designers the recognition they deserve by bringing the work they do to an enthusiastic audience who can witness firsthand the kind of savvy talent and compromises that go into every good design.

During the 15 - 20 minute heat, both 2D and 3D competitors battled on stage to complete their pre-planned design based on a theme, given them a few days before the event. As John explained to the designers backstage before they took their places in front of their public, once they're on stage, any feelings of being nervous or insecure vanish once the clock starts. And it was certainly true. As the designers began constructing, drawing and designing their 2D or 3D image, they were all pros. The result was an impressive mix of graphic, illustration and urbanized art that presented a brilliant array of stellar designs. Luckily our judges were professionals themselves because I would be at a loss to determine who should win the crown and go to NYC to compete at the Cut&Paste Final later this year.

Meanwhile the PLATOON network really came together to give each other the support to execute a perfect evening. There was STAGE BROTHERS (Marc Brinkmeier #331 and Manuel Reinartz #5977) who documented the night spectacularly and an equipped camera crew (Jonny Brooking #5943, Sahar Lone #5944, Julia Kloiber #3291and Mata #340) conducting interviews with competitors, judges, and collecting footage for the PLATOON archive. Everyone helped out with running the Adobe audience contest, rounding up the lost competitors and judges, and making sure the afterparty with PFADFINDEREI and NOTIC NASTIC rocked!

Honza, KRSN and Skate made a killer audio/visual show!

And the girls from NOTIC NASTIC were simply breathtaking...we sweated off till the end, even getting up on the stage to dance around. Check out the NOTIC NASTIC video to get a good feeling from the event.

So a special congratulations goes out to our winners Acci Baba in 2D, Armin Keplinger in 3D, & Leo Marthaler in Motion Design, and our runner up in 2D AARGH, who walked away with a new sense of self and a gold crown. And the judges offered the best critiques and compliments and many stuck around afterwards to join in at the afterparty. Special thanks to the competitors and judges who put so much passion and enthusiasm into the evening.

If you missed out this time don't worry, we´ll be doing it again!

For more, check out Cut&Paste being featured on rbb and our radio spot on dradio (German only). Or the old-fashion way: pictures on flickr!

report about Cut&Paste Helsinki coming soooon....

so, stay tuned!