One can’t help but notice that on the website of Cut & Paste, the crew all look pretty sexy. Founder John Fiorelli’s headshot says hi-tech mogul, technical director Noah Norman’s profile says he uses his tongue as “a voltmeter, blowing amplifiers, and tearing sub cones”, and you can barely see marketing director Lauren Dapiaoen’s face in her photo – the frame is filled mostly by her chest in a white tank top, and her awesomely tatted up arm.

“The photos are all lies,” claims Fiorelli. “We’re all nerds!”

Okay, so there’s some truth to that. After all, how can you call a bunch of kids who have set up a design-as-sport competition not nerdy? “I think being nerdy is a really positive thing,” defends Fiorelli. “Most of being a good nerd is enjoying tinkering; we’re people who really enjoy building things and the details.”

Important life skills indeed. And in our post-millennial times, nerdiness has evolved from negative stereotype to subculture cool. Google has dominated the world. Dork glasses are still a fashion statement. And for music taste one-upmanship, the more obscure an indie band the better. Even Peaches Geldof wrote an entire editorial on how much she loves dorks. Call it revenge of the nerds, but it’s looking increasingly like the meek have inherited the earth.

In the design scene, Cut & Paste is known as the small nerd event gone mega. Flashback to New York circa 2005, when these design kids hosted an inaugural tournament with 800 attendees. Now, the event takes place in 16 cities worldwide.

“It started as a fun arty event to throw for designers in New York, but was really just a showcase for designers. Then more designers got excited and asked us to come to their cities,” says Fiorelli, of the event’s global domination. Cut & Paste now hits cities around the world, including the design hubs of Berlin, Tokyo, and London. For the first time this year, there will be a Global Championship, where city champs are flown to New York for a final showdown on June 20.

“People basically stand for a few hours to see designers use Photoshop and Maya,” summarises Fiorelli. The format of the digital design tournament has competitors sitting on stage; given a time limit and a theme, their digital efforts are projected onto huge screens as they work. “It’s totally fun,” attests Tat from Graphic Airlines, who was last year’s winner at the Hong Kong edition of Cut & Paste. “Design is rarely a live performance, so it’s a bit nerve wrecking, and really challenging.”

Judges determine the winner after the allocated time of 15 minutes, with points awarded for skill, aesthetics, and audience involvement. “In Amsterdam, we had one designer writing questions on his canvas,” recalls Fiorelli. “He was asking for suggestions with jokes and yelling out things like, ‘Can someone suggest a body part for me?’ It was very cool; he understood that the audience was a real player.”

Besides watching and helping the designers create, the audience can mingle away, cheer on who they like, and also rock out to the DJs spinning. The sets are synchronised with the design themes, so if the issue is money, you can expect funk classic For the Love of Money, or maybe Puff Daddy’s Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems.

This will be Cut & Paste’s second year in Hong Kong. Backed by the International Ambassadors of Design, judges include G.O.D. founder Douglas Young, artist Young Kim aka Suitman, and graffiti artist MC Yan. “The fact that it’s a live event makes it quite interesting, not only for the professional design community, but for anyone who is interested in design,” says Alan Lo, chairman of Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design. “What we’re always trying to do is to take design and creativity and bring it to the masses. Live design is actually not that absurd of an idea, it’s a great platform to show this process that people never see.”

And it’s also a great way for young designers to gain exposure, as talent scouts from the city’s best design offices are usually in attendance, scoping out up and comers. Besides a whole lot of street cred, designers who win this competition can also expect to be handed design goodies including Apple products and software – the international competition has a design contract from Converse awaiting one lucky designer. In addition, Cut & Paste will publish a special issue with Hong Kong-based, internationally acclaimed design magazine IDN, featuring works from participants around the world.

“This is the show where designers can be rock stars,” concludes Fiorelli. “They’re celebrated not because they have big hair; they can be celebrated for who they are and what they do.”

Cut & Paste. May 15, 8pm at the HKEC. See www.cutandpaste.com for more details.