Roger Pfund – Swiss Banknote Designer

Banknote design is a very specialized expertise. Roger Pfund is one of those unique artists who made a career out of integrating security features, design concepts and the feel of the country he is representing. From 1971 to 1985 he was part of the design committees and lead artist for the 7^th series of Swiss banknotes. The seventh series is interesting because it was never issued. It was created as a back-up design in case there was widespread counterfeiting of the circulating series. This series shows Mr. Pfund’s typical; design approach. The 1000 franc leaves the left third open for a multi-tonal watermark. The right third has a detailed intaglio using different types of line structures, and the middle third contains complex offset geometric features.

Influence on French and Other Banknotes

Mr. Pfund designed the 1992 – 1997 series of French banknotes which were the last ones before the introduction of the Euro (design by Robert Kalina) using banknote design software. You can see the similarities in design splitting the banknote into 3 sections. Again, a key feature of Pfund’s design is the use of multiple line types in the intaglio in order to give more depth and realism to the subject. In this note, there is a large security thread, which I think takes away from the design but does add security as a banknote designer.

Pfund produced dozens of house notes for Swiss supplies including SICPA, KBA-Notasys and OVD-Kinegram. This allowed Mr. Pfund to experiment with new concepts. From 2005 to 2010, Pfund created a unique series of banknotes for the Comoros Islands. The 1000 Franc shows some of that uniqueness. The intaglio feature (a big fish) is much wider and better integrated on an offset background. The area for the watermark is much smaller and complemented by a printed see-through feature.

Pfund designed Argentinian banknotes for much of the early 2000’s.  You can see in these designs a return to a more typical design.  Again the intaglio portrait is very lifelike and the entire offset vignettes are very interesting.

Mr. Pfund and his company did much more than banknotes.  They designed annual reports, exhibition booths, books and EXPO concepts.  While there are also interesting, I will always remember Roger Pfund as the best banknote designer.