OUGD406: License to Print Money - Concept Inspirations

Inspirations

As the money will be aimed at students, it will be based in Leeds and it will be encouraging working hard and then playing harder this gives me three good considerations to go off when designing.  

My greatest inspirations for this are the designs done for the other Qoin currencies that have helped developed my concept: 

Bristol pound-
In February 2012 the people of Bristol were invited to help create paper pounds for the Bristol Pound. With a call to budding artists in the South West’s capital, the Bristol Pound launched a competition to find eight designs to be used on each side of the £B1, £B5, £B10 and £B20 paper pounds. Hundreds of entries were received from school children, students, professional designers and amateurs alike.

Each of the winning designs captures something of Bristol’s character, celebrating its commitment to greener living, its cultural diversity, its creative spirit and its technological heritage:

• -‘Balloons’ by Jemima Blench, 10, of Westbury Park Primary School and ‘Concord’ by local artist Kim Short, will feature on the £B20.
• -‘Houses’ by Bristol artist Matt Price and ‘Hannah Moore & Bristol Old Vic’ conceived by Anthea Page and designed by Juraj Prodaj, will feature on the £B10.
• -‘St. Paul's Carnival’ by photographer Mark Simmons and ‘Graffiti tiger’ by Alex Lucas will grace the £B5.
• -‘Bicycle’ by Bristol illustrator Jethro Brice and a design by Phil West will feature on the £B1.

The landscape designs each have their own colour scheme, but remain a consistent style through type, layout and scale..

Brixton pound-

http://brixtonpound.org/showmemoney

1st edition: 

Many wonderful Brixton people contributed to the first edition notes, they are similarly jam-packed with the work of a number of Brixton creatives as well as some iconic Brixton inspired images. The notes were designed by Rob Adderley. The background images on the front of the notes are taken from Lambeth Archives. The illustrations along the bottom of the notes were designed by Ceri Buck of the Invisible Food Project, and they glow under UV light! The engravings on the back of the notes feature engravings byStaffan Gnosspelius of the market and other Brixton scenes. Hannah Lewis of The Remarkery was in charge of overseeing the design process and bringing together the group of people involved.

 

Olive Morris (1952 – 1979) - a radical political activist and community organiser who established the Brixton Black Women’s Group, and played a pivotal role in the squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s; Olive was born in Jamaica in 1952 and moved with her family to Britain aged 9. She was a Brixton resident from 1961-1975 and died at the age of 27 from cancer. The image is from the Remember Olive Morris Project.

James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS (born 1919) - independent scientist and environmentalist who, whilst working for NASA, first developed the Gaia hypothesis, proposing that the earth is in a delicate but dynamic steady-state that human activity is disturbing, in particular through global warming. Brixton resident from 1925-1933. The image was provided by James Lovelock himself.

C.L.R. James (1901 – 1989) - Trinidadian journalist, historian, socialist thinker, and anti-colonialist who chose to spend his final years on the ‘front line’ of Brixton. Photographer Steve Pyke provided the photo of C.L.R. James

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) - painter who moved to Brixton aged 20, reportedly returning to Holland a changed man, having seen firsthand the impacts of poverty on his daily walk from Brixton to Covent Garden. 

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I do not feel like these designs are very aesthetically pleasing in comparison to other designed currencies. I am not a fan of the diagonally slanted features for type, but it does make use of strong consistent colour schemes. I want to experiment with being more minimal with my note designs than this and having a more structured layout in terms of design. The 2nd editions are better examples..

2nd edition notes:Designed by Charlie Waterhouse and Clive Paul Russell of the local design agency This Ain't Rock'n'Roll. In addition to a local hero all of the notes feature a design inspired by the iconic Coldharbour Lane Barrier Block and other Brixton influenced features. Top marks to those who guessed them!

Lenford (Len) Kwesi Garrison (1943 – 2003) - academic, community activist, and co-founder of theBlack Cultural Archives. Garrison’s life’s work was to catalogue the development of the Black British identity and its history. He co-founded the BCA in the heart of Brixton Market, Coldharbour Lane in 1981. The back of the note features public street art from Stockwell Skate Park.

Stockwell Skate Park, Stockwell Park Road

Brixton Girl by Wrist 77 (Wayne Seales), a local graffiti artist born and bred in South London. He's been doing graffiti for over a decade now - he features regularly on the London graffiti scene and became well known for his characters, including the Brixton Girl.

 

The Barrier Block, Coldharbour Lane 

Luol Deng (born 1985) - professional basketball player for the GB national basketball team and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat. Born in South Sudan, Deng emigrated as a child and moved with his family to Brixton. There he joined England’s 15-and-under basketball team at Brixton Basketball Club, marking the beginning of his basketball career. The reverse of the note is inspired by the Evelyn Grace Academy and features the Brixton Rec logo.

David Bowie (born 1947) - musician, actor, and record producer. A major figure and pioneer for over four decades in the world of popular music. Bowie and his family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, Brixton, from 1947-1953. He has sold an estimated 140 million albums worldwide. The back of the note is inspired by detailing from the Nuclear Dawn mural on Coldharbour Lane painted in 1983 during the peak of the Cold War.

Nuclear Dawn mural on Carlton Mansions, Coldharbour Lane

Violette Szabo, GC, MBE (1921 – 1945) - Second World War British secret agent. Born in Paris, she moved to London with her family and attended school, and later also worked in the Bon Marché department store in Brixton. Szabo was involved in a number of dangerous missions in France during the war, depicted in the 1958 film ‘Carve Her Name with Pride’. She paid the ultimate price for her heroism. The reverse of the note is inspired by public street art from Electric Avenue: 'Foxes & Cherries' by Lucy Casson and 'Brixton Speaks' by Will Self.
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Overall, these designs are much better representations of how you can design banknotes in a more modern style with references to city contexts, etc. The layouts are much more considered and complex in design terms, whilst still appearing more simplistic. I can take much more inspiration from them being playful examples, which can relate to my 'play money'. These designs do not feature as much of a strict, exclusive colour scheme which is something that I want in my design. I love how every featured pattern has a contextual meaning to it routing from Brixton. I want to use similar concepts in my Leeds student currency.