Licence to Print Money - Development

I tried to experiment with different options for the banknote. I didn't know whether to scrap the animal idea and just put in words instead or both. I decided to do both as it would be more Chinese New Year Themed as it could include positive words and the animal to celebrate. Although I said about making the design look traditional - meaning it would be horizontal. I also tried making it vertical and make the banknote shape point at the end to make it look more interesting. After all this, I decided to keep it how I originally wanted it which was to have it horizontal as I just wanted to keep everything the same and traditional. The banknote will the the same size as the current one which is 156mm x 77mm

Licence to Print Money - Design

The design that I really liked the idea of was the one I sketched, this seemed the most appealing and more suitable to the design idea I was originally going for. The only problem with this design is that the left side looks empty at the bottom. I originally had the idea to place the People's Republic of China symbol onto the design but as I will be screen printing the whole design, I'm sure that the details wouldn't show through since it will be too small. The idea of this design is so that it shows the rat being surrounded by positivity. This will show that people born in the year of the rat would be somewhat surrounded by positive energy.

Possible designs: 

I was considering whether to write the word rat underneath the design but most people that I asked preferred the one without as they told me it looks better when it is simplistic and minimum. I do agree with this the rat design is obvious anyway so there's no need to re-inforce it by adding the word.

 

Then I tried filling up all the shapes with the word repeated just as a reference, so I could see what it would look like if all the shapes were filled. The look of the design with all the words doesn't look particularly pleasing as my eyes only gravitate towards the words rather than the rest of the banknote. I made the '¥100' point size bigger and rotated it vertically so it would be easily seen. I went back to the current banknote and the '¥100' was repeated 3 times just on the front. I thought that if I made the value larger in size, people would have no issues in seeing it clearly. Especially as the '¥100' is segregated from the design as has nothing around the area to distract someones attention, it would be easier to see.

I then experimented by filling most of of the design with red and gold but with the rat outline in black. The design looked overpowering and slightly obnoxious as the colours may look too vivid when I screen print.

Final design

The final design turned out much better. The black balances out the boldness of the red and gold as it is darker. The decision to make the centre part clear/unprinted is because I am wanting to print onto nice cream stock so I don't want the colour of the stock to be completely muted or else it would be pointless to used coloured stock. Also, as I am thinking of using textured stock, I really want it to show though on larger areas. 

The rat design and the writing was created to look more like an illustration and being hand-drawn. I tired to make it look like a typical Chinese-style drawing where it is very minimum. Traditional Chinese drawing/writing is created by using a a single standard paint brush where the brush is really thick at the top and tip is pointed at the end so you can really get the thickness or thin lines you want in a design. The paint brush is typically used with ink so I wanted my design to look like it's been created by using ink; also with the flicks at the end of the design to make it appear like a traditional Chinese drawing and like it's be done by hand with a paint brush. 

I chose to use the octagon shape (bagua) for the design instead of the diamond shape as this shape looked more proportionate and better to put the rat inside of. The term 'bagua' means eight symbols in Chinese as the shape symbolises the equilibrium of the opposite; one side cannot do without or else it would be un-balanced/unequal.  

The words that I have used on the design are 'luck' (left) and 'prosperity' (right). The reason I had chosen 'luck' as one of the words is because every time I go to China, I see these words everywhere but 'luck' seems to be the most popular as ultimately, luck is all we need. I then chose 'prosperity' as this is a generalised word that can be manipulated how you want so it could be prosperous in wellbeing, wealth, success, comfort or security etc. I though that this word could be use to whoever and whatever they wanted from it.

Licence to Print Money Exhibition

For the independent research, I looked at themes such as:

• Piggy bank theme where the exhibition is about saving money
• The whole idea of 'money grows on trees' 
• Slang terminology of what money means in different languages as it will have all sorts of currencies at the exhibition
• Price tags. How everything costs money

The idea that I liked the most was the Wall Street theme. This is because the stock market is where people all around the world invest in trade with their money and would have to be quite wealthy in doing so. Therefore, it accepts all types of currencies from around the world. Live stocks and shares could possibly be projected onto the wall at the exhibition to make it seem more realistic. Film quotes from movies such as 'The Wolf of Wall Street' could also be on there since it is relevant to the Wall Street theme. The two American flags that hand outside of Wall Street could possibly be re-created in the exhibition so it gives a sense of being in New York.

Other ideas we collectively thought about for the Wall Street theme as part of a group:

• Northern Wall Street - Northern slang terms 
• Stock projected live
• Stock graph 
• Flags
• Film quotes - vinyl stickers
• Ask studios to create their own bank note for the exhibition 
• Projectors/screens
• Booklet handout - cheque shaped booklet
• Clips from films (muted)
• Time laps of people creating their banknote designs 
• Digital style typeface - BP dots
• Helvetica for body of type
• Possible colours: red, green, orange and black
• Wall Street journal font
• Light box as the 'wow factor' in the room
• Map of Bank House on the leaflet

Licence to Print Money - Ideas

I decided do the redesign for the Chinese Yuan as people really liked the idea as no one really thought to do this. I also think that I have more knowledge about the Chinese culture as all my family are Chinese and I celebrate Chinese New Year every year and I know how much this tradition means to our culture.

The whole idea of Chinese New Year is to celebrate a New Year but with the old Chinese calendar in which they used the Lunisolar (Lunar) calendar. This calendar differs in each day or month depending on the cycle of the lunar phases. This is why Chinese New Year occurs a different times every year. This also means that Chinese people don't always have the same birth date as it constantly changes every year but not dramatically; the days can shift a few days or weeks from the last year.

The sketch was a possible layout option since I wanted to keep it traditional and have aspects be the same as the current note so that people couldn't become overly confused. I want the design to primarily be red as it intertwines from the current banknote and I think that people are conditioned in their mind to know the value of the colour and not particularly reading how much the value is. If I were to use a different colour, this may complicate the banknote idea for people that have been using the Yuan banknotes for years. The diamond shape (lozenge) is a typical shape that seems to appear a lot in the Chinese culture as it considered to be a lucky shape and the shape is seen as one of the Eight Treasures.

Astrology book production

This is what the final pages look like. I used Didot throughout the whole book because I it looks fun and suitable for and Astrology book as the typeface looks like it has movement - like the signs when they shift/come into orbit.

I do really like it when it is quite plain as it just looks simple and elegant but I still want to try it out with a galaxy-like background.

I decided that I want to make an eBook instead of a physical book. This is because when we had a InDesign workshop, the workshop staff recommended a website called 'issuu' in which you can upload your publications online for the world to see. I thought that as Astrology part of a niche market, not many people may want to buy physical copies and not many people are interested in the topic. I thought that if people wanted to know more about Astrology, they would do online research instead of having to buy books; I thought it would be best if I had my book online instead as it is easily accessible and available whenever.

Licence to Print Money Exhibition

As a group, the initial exhibition theme ideas that we came up with for the Licence to Print Money brief were:

• A 60s theme banker
• Using cheque books as invites/feedback sheets
• Movie clips incorporated into the design
• ATM machines 

De La Rue

De La Rue is the largest banknote printer and passport manufacturer in the world and are trusted by governments, central banks and commercial organisations worldwide. In 2009, De La Rue won a 10 year contract to continue to print UK passports and The Bank of England banknotes.