The Money Maker

 This article on Creative Review the designer Ootje Oxenaar speaks about his design for the redesign of the dutch bank note. 
The currency regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world seemed to exemplify The Netherlands and Dutch design in particular, this article gives an incredible insight into the ideas, ambitions and limitations of bank note design and his own practice.

The image above of the proposed 250 guilder note features the beautiful Rietveld Schroder house in Holland one of my favourite buildings and is an amazing example of the De Stijl movement. The design reflects the angular structures of this building.

As you can see the designs are just exquisite, the colour combinations of red, orange and yellow seems to come together very nicely and don't feel too over powering. The relationship between the images and text keep the clarity of information excellent. The size of the numbers along side the text means for direct communication and are not too large. 

 This gives a bit of insight into how the designer actually went about designing the notes. Using paper and pencil working actual size, this will insure the size of image will not be changed if scaled up or down. 

 This yellow bank note for 50 is another brilliant example of how the designs can be put together to be very aesthetically pleasing. The sunflowers relate to the Van Gogh sunflower paintings and feel typically Dutch. The fairly open space where the numbers are allows for clear communication and the number 50 here is very easy to read. The choice of different subtle colours together have been picked very appropriately, the back ground colour is slight and works in contrast to the orange of the type. This relationship between the background and foreground work in unison this is something that I think is key in the bank note designs creating a hierarchy of images to type.

An element that makes each note so distinct is the variation of colours, this is due to the colours be very recognisable from each other the yellow, blue, purple and so forth. The choice of colours do feel connected the subtlety of each tone is not too overpowering and thus feels like a series. If I want to create more that one note this could be something I could do to help the consistency of the notes.

  

This article has given me a great insight into what bank notes can look like, the focus can be on creating a design lead note. This more simple style can help the note feel different and not like a typical bank note.