Review: Cut&Paste @ The Coronet

The crowd whoop and holler over heavy bass lines, egging on their favourites in the head to head knockout battle. Beads of sweat glisten on the foreheads of their heroes on stage, under pressure with only minutes left to prove their worth.

But this is no ‘8 Mile’ style MC rap battle- the people on stage are, in fact, graphic designers and the crowd consists of design aficionados in all manner of shapes and colours. This is Cut&Paste London’s Digital Design Tournament.

The competition, which was launched in New York in 2005, is touring sixteen cities worldwide to find the crème de la crème in the fields of 2-D, 3-D and Motion design to go forward to the Global Championship in June. This is cutting edge stuff. If Saturday’s event was anything to go by, design in London is a force to be reckoned with. One of the Motion judges even noted on the night that standards in the London competition are already surpassing those of New York’s. Yay for us.

The talent on display is undeniable. The idea of design as entertainment, or even a sport, might seem odd, but it works, probably because this level of computer design is way beyond the abilities of most of us mere mortals. Strong designing personalities shine here, such as audience favourite Jason Turner, a ‘Kevin the teenager’ look-alike with a loveable geeky swagger and 2-D winner Fox Fisher whose urban illustrative style was a hit with the crowd, and the judges too. Fox joins the other winners Yibi Hu and Stephen Tierney for the final round in New York on June 20th. You can support them by watching all the frantic scribbling live via webcast hosted on the Cut&Paste site.

By Lucy Taylor