How Banknotes Are Designed – Currency notes are some of the most important documents in any country; this is because they perform two crucial primary functions. One of these is facilitating trade, as they are the basis upon which transactions are done. This allows trade and commerce to thrive, leading to national development. In addition to this, banknotes also store a country’s historical, environmental, and cultural heritage. This is because notes often contain portraits depicting great men and women from the given country as well as important aspects of the country’s environment. That is why the design process for currencies is one of the most rigorous, as they have to be visually appealing yet protected against counterfeiting. Read on to discover how central bankers go about designing banknotes.
Selecting Designers
Once it has been decided that there is a need for new currency notes, the country’s central bank selects a team of designers who will be tasked with coming up with the banknote design elements. This team usually consists of trusted and experienced designers who have to deliver within a specified amount of time to ensure that the note is printed and goes into circulation quickly. The team also typically consists of some young designers who might bring in fresh ideas despite not being as experienced as their older counterparts.
Getting Started
The central bank then issues the designers with a comprehensive brief on how to go about developing the currency. This is by no means a way of micromanaging how they work but provides them with the design and security measures that are required in the design. These measures include things such as whose portrait is to appear on the currency and the security features such as the watermarks and serial numbers. This brief gives the designers an idea of the constraints that they should work within. It allows them to explore all their options and how to approach it before starting to create the design.
Establishing a Theme
Next, the designers set about establishing a theme that will guide how they create the design. Using the given brief, they identify the most appropriate one based on things such as the natural or artificial features that are set to appear on the note or whose face is poised to grace it. They can do so by developing things such as the color schemes and determining where everything will fall into place. Security is one overriding factor, and therefore all the features have to be included at each stage. The central bank ensures that all the current and updated security features are included in a way that does not interfere with the aesthetic value and convenience of the currency.
Design Details
It is always important for the designers to create their own theme but take into account the provided security brief. The designers closely analyze everything and settle on things such as the arrangement of lines, coloration, thickness, and alignment of portraits. On certain occasions, a government chooses to redesign or overhaul a set of currencies, and hence the new ones will become a family of notes. In such a scenario, the designers create a theme that will tie all of the banknotes together in a way that is artistically sound while maintaining the security features for all the notes.
The Final Design
Developing the final design is a rigorous process since it is rare for the first iteration of templates to be selected for printing circulation. The designers are often asked to come up with a wide array of similar or different designs. The banks’ top managers usually get a glimpse of how the design is being developed and help with choosing the most appropriate ones. Once this is done, the selected design goes into the printing stage and is then put into circulation. We hope this blog can help you answer the question, how banknotes are designed?
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