OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Design Considerations

There are a lot of considerations to make when creating a bank note design:

'Your proposed banknote design should be presented as a finished print that makes use of any of the varied analogue print processes available within the college's workshops. Submissions should additionally be created using a minimum of two colours/finishes. Paper size for completed work will be 21cm x 26cm with banknote designs displayed landscape. The size of the actual banknotes are to be determined by the student when based on their design rationale. It is up to the student whether they choose to display one or two sides of a banknote on the print. Each 21cm x 26cm print is to be submitted by 21st April 2016 for inclusion in a Level 4 and Level 5 group show.'

I will also have to consider the stock that the note is printed on, the colours that are used and also the methods that are used to print. These could including letterpress, screenprinting and monoprinting, and additionally embossing, foiling, hand drawn sections of the design, hand sewn sections of the design, using neon or glow in the dark inks etc. As my research into other existing banknote designs shows, both portrait and landscape orientations are in use and so I will have to decide which is the most appropriate for my ideas. There is a relatively traditional layout for banknotes - images contained within a square or rectangular box with the numbers in the bottom or top right hand corners - which allows for a uniform aesthetic across all global currency, so adhering to these existing rules might allow for a faster acceptance of the new designs. Designs also need to be recognisable quickly and without the user taking in much of the detail, and so the use of colours, shapes and patterns are very important markers to for identification and ensuring each design is distinct.

Aside from the production methods I will also have to consider many of the practical aspects of creating a new banknote. Will I change the value of each note, or keep the standard use of £5 and £10? Following on from this, how many notes will be produced - will all values be used or will only the most used values be reproduced under this new design? And where will the currency be used - within the UK, or further afield in Europe, or even globally? 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Further Research Into Banknote Designs

Designs of some of the world's banknotes, both current and old:

The current Euro banknote, each with distinct colours

Alternate portrait-based Euro banknotes that were never issued

The Swiss Franc - uses a portrait orientation in it's design

and possess eighteen different security features

The Dutch Guilder, replaced by the Euro in 2002 - uses both portrait and landscape orientations

The Australian dollar - all Australian banknotes are now made of polymer, as polymer

allows the incorporation of many security features not available to paper banknotes. They

almost always feature a clear 'window' in replacement of a hologram. They also last

significantly longer than paper notes, resulting in a decrease in environmental impact

and a reduction of production and replacement costs.

A Northern Irish five pound note made from polymer with a portrait orientation

A possible redesign for the US dollar

Another possible redesign for the UD dollar - a distinct pattern that runs throughout

A possible redesign for the Euro, featuring a hidden UV design

A selection of first prize winning banknotes entered in the Swiss National Bank

competition - the size differed depending on the value of the note

A Ming Dynasty 200 Kwan note from 1399 was the size of a legal letter

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Current Banknote Designs

The customary design of banknotes in most countries is a portrait of a notable citizen(s) on the front or back sides. In England, all of the individuals featured are of historical significance:

On the reverse side of every English bank note is an image of Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth Fry is currently the only other woman to feature on any English bank note. In her lifetime she was significant as a social reformer and was recognised on the five pound note for her work improving jail conditions, particularly for women. On the ten pound note is Charles Darwin, famous for his work in the theory of evolution. On the twenty pound note is the face of Adam Smith, one of the fathers of modern economics, and the fifty pound note is shared by Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who were responsible for the progress of manufacturing steam engines.

When the time comes for a bank note to be replaced, and a new design to be phased in, suggestions from the general public are always considered, from Ainsely Harriot, to Robbie Williams, and even David Bowie. A new ten pound note (2017) will feature the face of Jane Austen, and the new five pound note will feature Winston Churchill (2016). Despite introducing a world famous female author, the only other female present will be phased out, leaving England's banknotes with only one woman, yet again. The lack of diversity in these designs has caused a huge number of petitions to be shared and signed across the country, with many gaining hundreds of thousands of signatures. Equality, even on banknotes, is important - they exist nationally and yet continue to disregard some of the most important achievements made in our society, causing damage to society that is so often overlooked.


When designing a banknote it is also important to consider the possibility of counterfeiting. Traditionally, anti-counterfeiting measures involved including fine detail with raised printing on bills which would allow non-experts to easily spot forgeries. In early paper money one creative means of deterring counterfeiters was to print the impression of a leaf in the bill. Since the patterns found in a leaf were unique and complex, they were nearly impossible to reproduce.

In response to advances in technology that made counterfeiting easier, he designs began to include new, more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting systems such as holograms, multi-coloured notes, embedded devices such as strips or security threads, microprinting, watermarks and inks that change colour depending on the angle of the light, and the use of design features such as the "EURion constellation" which disables modern photocopiers. Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop have been modified by their manufacturers to obstruct manipulation of scanned images of banknotes.

An example of microprinting

The pattern of dots that make up the EURion constellation

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Further Research Into the Theme of Money Within Art

Money, either the subject of or the physical use of, is a recurring theme that is prevalent in the work of many artists today. A famous example of which would be the 'K Foundation Burn a Million Quid' performance act that occurred in August 1994. Initiated by The K Foundation (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, formally of the band The KLF), the performance consisted of the burning of one million pounds sterling in cash. The money itself had come from a surplus supply of money that Drummond and Cauty had collectively earned through royalties accrued after the deformation of the band. There was no initial thought behind the burning of the money, other than that it was just a possibility.

K Foundation burn a million Quid, K Foundation, 1994

Another artist who uses the theme of money within her work is Janice Kerbel, a London based fine artist known for her rigorous and detailed studies. In 1999 she posed as an architect student for a year and a half at the Lombard Street branch of the Coutts and Co. bank. During this time she collected exhaustive information on the bank and once her research was complete, she published a highly detailed instruction manual on how to rob it, entitled 15 Lombard St (2000). The manual included surveillance photos of the bank and the surrounding city centre, maps, timetables, specifications for the security systems, minute by minute timelines, copious equipment lists, getaway maps, written texts where she describes foreseen diversions to facilitate a getaway cars, and directions to a hideout location in Spain - in essence, a blueprint for a perfect heist. This information is then presented to an audience who may use it to access the bank themselves.

Bank Job, Janice Kerbel, 1999

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Show Me The Money

A selection of the works on display in the Show Me The Money exhibition at the People's History Museum in Manchester:

Graphs, Simon Roberts - a set of 56 graphs taken from newspaper reports about the financial crisis of 2008. With their axis removed, it is impossible to tell what they signify, yet line are graphs are used by journalists to signal sharp downturn, or a transformation of fortunes.

Cash Point, Wolfgang Weileder - Cash Point takes the premise that public art is 'for the public benefit' with  a delightful literalness. Banknotes sit behind the front panel and their distribution is computer-controlled. At one random moment each day the artwork ejects a banknote. Anyone who receives money from the artwork does so merely by being in the vicinity.

Credit Crunch Lexicon, Simon Roberts - Roberts combines three related forms of representation and understanding: textual, graphic and photographic images. The artwork uses all of the most common terms that have informed the way we have seen the financial crisis from 2008.

$49,983: Total Amount of Money Rendered in Exchange for a Masters of Fine Arts Degree to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Pulped into Four Sheets of Paper, Thomas Gokey (one of four) - To make this work Thomas Gokey pulped the exact cost of his Masters degree in Fine Arts, $49,983 in used currency. He could then sell it, piece by piece, until the value of the debt has been met. In owning a piece of Gokey's art [the gallery] also owns a piece of his debt. [The gallery] is both his creditors and his debtors.

The ROBIN™ Currency, Robin Bhattacharya - The ROBIN™ Currency is a fully functioning currency system based on prime numbers. The coin and notes of each corresponding to one prime number, and are therefore unique. It can be freely traded and the changing exchange rates reflect its market value on the artist's website. The value of each ROBIN™note is determined by relative scarcity or point of introduction into circulation.

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - License to Print Money

In an age of Apple Pay, Bitcoin, contactless, Paypal and other options for the transferring of funds, is there a future for "real" money?

Brief History of the Banknote

The use of a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand was a concept that originated in China in 118 BC (3rd century). The first material to be used was leather, and it wasn't until the 11th century that paper currency first appeared. Again originating in China, and moving across to Europe in the early 13th century, paper money originated in two forms: drafts, which were receipts for value held on account, and bills, which were issued with a promise to convert at a later date.

Originally, money was based on a Commodity Money System, in which a commodity such as gold is made the unit of value and physically used as money. The money retains its value because of its physical properties, and can be used outside of the monetary system. Now, we use a Fiat Money System - fiat money's value is unrelated to the value of any physical quantity, and so a coin is fiat currency to the extent that its face value, as defined by law, is greater than its market value as metal.

The Rise Of Cyber Money

Since the mid 90's, the use of electronic money has become increasingly popular, with the Oyster Card and other European equivalents becoming the preferred method of payment on frequently used public services, making the need for coins or notes to buy a ticket redundant. E-money, as it has been termed, has also become frequently abundant in everyday life, starting with Paypal to avoid the unnecessary sharing of personal information, and with the introduction of contactless payments, the need for physical money has seen a recent decline.

This has been furthered with the introduction of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a currency independent of any central authority, transferable electronically, more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees. It is created entirely digitally by a community of people that anyone can join. Bitcoins are ‘mined’, using computing power in a distributed network. The bitcoin protocol states that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created by miners. However, these coins can be divided into smaller parts (the smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and is called a ‘Satoshi’, after the founder of bitcoin).

Bitcoin possesses several important features that set it apart from government-backed currencies: It's decentralized, meaning that it isn’t controlled by one central authority. It's anonymous as Bitcoin users aren't linked with names, it's fast, and it's completely transparent - bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that ever happened in the network in a digital ledger, called the blockchain. It is a fully virtual and immaterial monetary system.

Although Bitcoin has many, many potentially great aspects, there will always be an uncertainty about an entirely digital system, and probably may never overtake the traditional use of physical money 

OUGD404 - Studio Brief 02 - Risograph Printing Part I (The Internal Workings)

When making the choice of how I'd physically print this publication I ruled out digital printing first because it is a process that feels particularly corporate and somewhat clinical, which would not be complimentary to the content. I then considered a variety of physical processes including screenprinting and monoprinting, and also using a combination of the two with additional hand drawn elements, as these would have been the most appropriate production methods to convey the ideas of tenderness and intimacy. However, I also wanted to be able to produce a small run of copies, both for personal use and to convey the idea that tenderness can be shared in different ways - I am sharing my ideas about tenderness with each reader in turn, but I am also sharing a form of tenderness with a much larger group of people through the distribution of the publication. Risograph printing is a technique that I had become very familiar with during my Foundation course, and something that I was keen to return to this year. It lends itself to mass producing works, but also to giving a a very acute feeling of the handmade in what is ultimately a digital process, and so is perfectly suited for this project and ultimately why I chose to work with this method.

Risograph, or Riso, is a digital printing system that originated in Japan in the late 1980's. The machine itself appears very similar to a standard office photocopier, but combines the technology of a photocopier with the traditional art of screenprinting.

Printing on these machines is relatively simple - each machine is comprised of either one or two ink drums (depending on the model) that print separate layers of colour to make up a full print. An image is either sent digitally to the machine or is scanned in using the glass plate on the top of the machine, similar to a photocopier. The originals to be printed should always be in greyscale, as similar to when one would expose an image on to a silk screen, the Riso will only pick up the different shades within the image. The darker the area on the original image, the more densely the colour will be printed - black produces 100% density, white produces 0% density, and a medium grey will produce 50% density.

A Riso RP3700 machine

A pink ink drum half inserted in the machine

A master is then created from this image - a stencil made by the means of tiny heat spots on a thermal plate that burn voids (corresponding to image areas) into a master sheet. This master is then wrapped around a drum and ink is forced through the voids in the master to create the print. The paper runs flat through the machine while the drum rotates at high speed to create each image on the paper.

Digital screen showing the master making process

A print-ready master sheet wrapped around a green drum, saturated with ink

Diagram showing the internal mechanism of a Risograph machine

The drums themselves contain a tube of printing ink at their core and a surrounding cylindrical mesh screen, similar to a silk screen, that the master is applied to. In the case of the RP3700, the machine which I was using, there is only space for one drum, meaning only one layer of colour can be printed at a time. To create an image with multiple colours requires the original image to be divided into colour layers and each of these layers to be scanned in separately. Between each layer of colour the drum is changed and a different master is created, resulting in a multi-layered, multi-coloured final print.

There is a relatively broad range of colours available for Risograph printing, although typically a studio will only keep four to six drums at a time due to cost. However, this does not necessarily limit the user - as with any printer, the colour can be printed at any shade by increasing or decreasing the density on the original print, which can help to maximise the appearance of only one or a few colours.

An example of one-colour printing - Alicia Nauta, Untitled, 2011

Aside from this, one of the most attractive and sought after features of the Risograph is its ability to mix colours. Even when printing at full density, the inks retain a certain translucent quality, allowing certain colours to be overlaid to create a multitude of new colours. For example, red and yellow can be overlaid to make a shade of orange, as can yellow and pink; red and blue can make purple, and yellow and green make a shade of teal.

A simple but effective example of a two-colour print - printed by Risosaurus, Sheffield

A multi-layered print using a large range of colours - Zoo Flask, Sister Arrow

A highly complex image made using only three colours (yellow, red and blue) -

detail of Wedges and Ledges, Rich de Courcy

I often find myself returning to the Risograph printing style within my work because I find it to be one of the most manual forms of digital printing, and it contains an unseen flexibility that brings whole new elements to the creative process. Printing with a Risograph provides many freedoms that are lost when using other forms of production as it allows for changes and alterations at every stage of the work. Using this printing technique is very much a process of building every page from the ground up - for every layer that is applied, changes can be made, colours can be edited, elements can be added or removed, and the slightest change can alter the entire tone of the piece. The element of play is hugely important during this printing process, and experimentation and accidental mistakes can improve work in surprising ways.

There are only a few minor technical limitations when printing on a Risograph: the maximum size a Risograph can print is A3, and the minimum is A4. It is not possible to print full bleed as there will always be a 5mm boarder at the edge of the page. However a print can always be trimmed down to any size and can appear full bleed on a smaller paper size. It is also not possible to print with 100% ink density using only one colour across a full page, as the area will not print evenly and heavy ink saturation causes internal jams. It is possible to print double sided on a Risograph, but exact alignment is often tricky and drag marks often occur as the paper passes through the machine due to over-saturation.

Risograph's also happen to be a very environmentally friendly way of mass producing prints as the machines use soy based inks and the masters are made from banana leaf product, and the technology is also highly reliable compared to a standard photocopier, achieving both very high speed (typically 130 pages per minute) and very low costs. The general lifespan for a risograph involves making 100,000 masters and 5,000,000 copies.

Front dials showing that this RP3700 has printed 2,201,822 copies

and created 7,441 masters in its lifetime (an old boy really)

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 01 - Final Designs and Critique

A range of final designs that were presented in the final critique to be considered for submission:

In the style of David Shrigley, this phrase is a comment on using art competitions
as a platform purely to gain exposure and recognition for oneself, and
not for the sake of winning prizes or helping a cause

An ironically intended submission in the style of David Shrigley 

An ironically intended submission in the style of David Shrigley 

An ironically intended submission in  the style of David Shrigley 

A mock-up of an exhibition label - 'donated in memory of fluxus' in

reference to the fluxus art movement, the inspired for this piece

A mock up of an exhibition label - 'in memory of Félician Marboeuf' in reference

to Félician Marboeuf, an author who famously published nothing in his lifetime

and was the inspiration of many anti-art works during the fluxus art period

An ironically intended submission influenced by Damien Hirst

Feedback from the final critique provided a very interesting reaction to the work presented. Almost every reaction was positive, with most commenting that the sarcastic and humorous nature of the phrases inspired by David Shrigley were very effective. Overall the most favoured design appeared to be 'If It Gets Me Famous I'm In', as it was felt that the phrase summed up out generation's approach to not only the art world, but also music production and many other creative outlets. The 'See Dee' design was also popular as many enjoyed the simplicity and irony of the handwritten words.  One or two people found the designs to be cliché (unsure which ones, it wasn't specified ?) but if they appeared this way then that view actually works in my favour, as recreating works by an artist who is well-know will often have this effect.

Despite this feedback, the reaction to this project left me with something of a dilemma - the work that was created in the style of David Shrigley was received far better than I had imagined within the studio, with both students and tutors leaving positive comments, but if I were to submit this work into the competition under David Shrigley's name as I had intended (and have it be well received there too), I run the risk of not gaining any recognition for myself. This is perhaps a rather selfish view of the work, but I know how important it is for young students such as myself to get both their work and their name seen by other creatives. If I were to submit under his name, there is also the possibility that my designs would not be accepted because of copyright. Although this was the entire point of my project (to use another artist's work to my own ends) it would appear that even without this, my work could still be successful in this competition if I were to remake the designs using a similar style but with my own handwriting.

After various discussions I concluded that I would rewrite these pieces in my own handwriting, as I would not be allowed to enter his handwriting into the competition. The designs were still heavily influenced by David Shrigley's work, and therefore still true to my original intent.

Submission 1

Submission 2

Submission 3

I submitted all three of these final designs to the Secret 7" competition.

Unfortunately I was not selected to be involved in the exhibition this year. Perhaps they didn't get my sense of humour.