Two designers enter; one designer leaves! Two designers enter; one designer leaves!

On Friday, Cut&Paste will once again kick off its global Digital Design Tournament, which pits designers against each other in a battle of artistic talent and speed. The six-year-old DDT will begin on Oct. 28 in NYC and will eventually culminate in the world championships in March.

Participants compete in four different categories with varying time limits: 2D Design (15 minutes), 3D Design (20 minutes), 2D, 3D & Motion/Animation Format Commonalities (15 minutes, 20 minutes or eight hours) and Motion/Animation design (taking place the day before the competition). Prizes range from a design commission for the grand prize to, of course, simply the opportunity to network with some of the best and brightest in the art world.

The NYC showdown will kick off the competition and feature winners of qualifying rounds like Ray Wong, who created the above stamp design in only 15 minutes. Jurors for the NYC event include Barbarian Group co-founder/CEO Ben Palmer. For more information, videos and entry forms, visit Cut&Paste’s website here.

While MuchMusic USA is now called “Fuse” in the States and gives high school kids the opportunity to go behind the scenes at Warped Tour and the Taste of Chaos, its former parent channel MuchMusic is still alive and well in Canada as evidenced by this spot done with help from Crush, Toronto.

Starting Dec. 20, Much Music will host its “Holiday Wrap” specials, marathons chronicling the highs and lows of pop music of the past year. Included for those enamored with celebrities are MuchMusic’s 10 hottest women and men of 2010. And, for Canadian fanatics of long-running coming of age television dramas about high school, Degrassi in India will feature Degrassi cast members in India for no reason in particular. These actors look pretty and sad in Canada, but maybe they’ll be ugly and frightened in India! Who knows?

While the programming may not sound appealing to the average human being with a soul, the nice thing about this spot is that causes waves of nostalgia for the old MTV spots from the 1980s. Remember when pop music was about fun an rebellion and pissing off your parents? Why does Canada get all the fun?

Credits after the jump.

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