Speaking from Experience: Printed Make

I used 350gsm matte paper for my cards for its strength and durability. Perhaps in the future I'd also try some glossy paper - although I'm generally against the look and feel of glossy stock, it'd probably hold the ink better than matte. 

Though I originally wanted the cards to be bound by a screw at the top left, acquiring such materials at late notice just wasn't going to happen. I subsequently experimented with bulldog clips and methods of temporary binding to allow the cards to be taken out and used like flash cards. 

Speaking from Experience Card Descriptions

These cards will feature on the front-facing description side of my cards, with the illustrations on the reverse side.

Digital Illustrations for Speaking From Experience

Whilst in this particular 
case the variant with a
stroke outline appeals 
to me more, overall
I prefer the stroke-less
variants one, and groups I questioned unanimously
agreed.

Design Evolution

Initially I planned to lay the type out like this, but soon realised that if I was to bind the cards at the top right then there's potential for the screw the obscure the type, and so I set the text to the right as below.

Whilst this design also allows for the steps to be quickly located whilst fanning or flicking through because of its location on the right, the lack of balance or alignment made me uneasy. 

This design served a good contrast - unobscured and visually sound.

Speaking from Experience Collaboration

I decided to collaborate with Megan - she, among other things, created these initial sketches for me to later turn digital. 

As shown on the drawings, I decided on six primary steps of the design process:

Research 

Sketch 

Go digital 

Develop

Finalise 

Make

Soon I will create their companion descriptions. 

Speaking from Experience Concepts

I like the idea of making double sided cards attached at one corner, in chronological order, giving advice on the design process. The first card, for example, could be based around Research, and on the other side of the card could be an illustration of that specific process of the design. I could potentially collaborate with Megan Ojari from Illustration in creating the illustrations on the back. I have presumed that my cards will be slightly larger than playing cards, and a heavy stock would be appropriate to ensure durability and satisfactory strength to endure the flicking through and fanning out of the cards would not significantly reduce their lifespan. 

Group Extension and Exploration

Above: Natasha Chan

Below: Katie Ayers

After our first pitch we acted immediately on some valuable feedback. We were advised that audio aspects would distract from the exhibition itself, and that our retro-futurist concept was too extreme, and probably wouldn't play nice with all of the banknotes because of their vast variations. We then decided to focus more on a stock market theme - we could keep the Sevastopol typeface because of its visual link to stock ticker symbols. 

We planned to scale down our idea dramatically and focus the exhibition entirely on the work itself, stripping all elements of the exhibition identity. 

Above: Alex Zorita

We also decided on a name change from License to Print Money to Investing in Art. It overtly links to our stock market theme and also subtly makes a case for more national investment in art and design. 

Above: Alice Morris

Final Concept 1

Our initial concept was to create an atmosphere of retro-futurism, using the typeface as the base. It is visually similar to the brutalist architecture of Bank House, as well as the CRT monitors of the late 20th century. 

The typeface could serve as part of a pattern, creating the starting point for posters, invites, wayfinding and more. 

Exhibition Concept Exploration

We decided that we could work quickly and effectively as a group during the concept stage if we came up with 5 vastly different ideas and then assigned each member one to explore and then feedback their findings before we decided which one to go with. 

We looked at 

• A future theme
• A spy theme
• A 'funeral for money'
• An international theme - money around the world 
• A Monopoly theme 

Physical Creation Process

In lieu of digital print methods I chose screenprinting as my method of production because it was the easiest (and in some cases only) traditional method of bringing my desired concepts to reality, and because it is a print process which I hadn't yet explored and was determined to try.  

Buying a large amount of stock allowed me to experiment with the look and feel of the note, as well as allowing space for mishaps like the one pictured above.

I experimented with a large amount of different stock choices, from traditional Italian paper to heavy plastic and tracing paper. I needed a material which would make sense for use as a banknote fit for fictional future use. 

If too much ink gets into the screen you have very little option but to keep running over test prints on scrap paper until it has been dispersed. 

Above you can see the consequences of too much ink getting through

Below are some test pieces on opaque plastic

Banknote Design Explorations

FINAL VARIATIONS

The notes below were rated highest in focus group testing and in-class critiques

The importance of my banknote typeface

The importance of the typeface used on my notes cannot be made more clear. I explored highly legible, modernist typefaces such as Helvetica, Roboto and San Francisco, but decided there was something overly realistic and practical to them, whereas the point of my note was to explore the world of sci-fi and alternative space exploration. 

This is when I started noticing ITC Blair. I saw it first on some future packaging by BlackBerry, then on multiple publications regarding America, and then on a massive number of science fiction books, specifically those by Iain M. Banks. Its sharp roundedness and depth, as well as its retro-futurism, made it ideal for my banknotes. 

Concepts for Banknote

Nature and exploration have been a primary theme in almost all of my banknotes, resonating through terrain maps, mountain peaks or park-like aesthetics. 

A physical manifestation of a fictional global currency: "Unified Earth Government Credits", or Credits. Taking inspiration from planetary terrain maps, nature, cyber-Renaissance patterns and illustrative versions of the Solar System.