So can I just say again how much I love this city! Last night I attended the San Francisco leg of the 2007 International Cut and Paste competition at Yerba Buena Center in South of Market’s Yerba Buena Gardens. The creativity flowing in that room was a site to behold; and the crowd, who were incredibly polite I might add, ranged from early 20’s to mid 50’s so no – I wasn’t the oldest one in the room – for the record.

Adobe Sponsored Cut and Paste is an International Digital Design competition live and on four screens – think Poetry Slam or Iron Chef, but for Graphic Designers…

Grand Prize is the Creative Suite 3 a particularly spectacular piece of software I’m told that retails for over $3000 and is coveted by Graphic Designers and Videographers world wide. I watched an interesting demo on our very own San Francisco based DL.TV for one of the tools that seamlessly blends multiple shots into one panoramic shot, a highly secret piece of software that competitors are very busy trying to copy….

Here are a partial list of the parameters taken from Cut and Pastes web site
Rules
· All work must be completed in 15 minutes
· Competitors are provided with themes for each round one week in advance
· Competitors may bring in approved objects to capture with a digital camera
· All approved objects are available for anyone to use during any round
· No finished artwork, photographs, pre-made digital elements – all work must be constructed from scratch

The photo above was a design with the theme being Currency. (Have a field day with that one bubble bloggers…)

All the big design firms were out in force scanning for new talent, but for me it was just fun to watch and be a part of such explosive energy. This city is home to some wickedly creative people.

A bit of reference for those who may be new to the city or reading from afar Yerba Buena Center is located next to the Metreon in South of Market, and is an area that has turned into one of the many art Meccas this city has to offer. SF Moma is on the adjacent block, as is the W Hotel, the fairly new St. Regis Hotel – which has turned into a hot drinking spot for straight and gay singles and includes their residential condominiums which have a couple of resales up right now. Also The Four Season Hotel is on the opposite block facing Market Street which is home to my favorite gym in the world Sports Club, and was the first to start the full service Luxury hotel style craze currently sweeping a number of International destination cities. The Four Seasons currently has a one bedroom available as well, which is rare as there aren’t very many one bedrooms. Great building/location if you’re in that price point.

As for the stunning Yerba Buena Gardens I can highly recommend walking the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as it’s a particularly serene place to meander through – handicap friendly no hills – so if your entertaining out of town relatives for the upcoming holidays and don’t have much in common it’s a great place to go as the place speaks for itself aka: no awkward silences with the inlaws.

****(Yerba Buena hosts a number of free events at any given time – Notice I love anything FREE ) – today at YB catch the Latin Jazz Festival from 1-3pm

All for now, gotta get ready for my real job – swindling all those unsuspecting buyers out of their hard earned money and into sub prime loans (ok, I’m not bitter I was called scum…he could have at least made it more romantic or creative and called me ‘pond scum’ and no I’m not linking to the final comment…find it on your own)