Is U.S. paper currency inferior to all others? Is it worth the paper it is printed on? Is it the root of all evil? Many designers have questioned the aesthetics (if not the value) of our sacred bills. Now designer Richard Smith brings us "The Dollar ReDe$ign Project," which he:
"... hopes to bring about change for everyone. We want to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy."
Will a redesign do the trick? Or shouldn't we simply revalue our basic metrics of wealth?
Redesign has been tried before. W.A. Dwiggins created Towards Reform of the Currency: Particularly in Point of Its Design. Published for 452 subscribers by The Limited Editions Club in 1932, it is a sardonic treatise on the aesthetics of design and includes Dwig's “specimens” of currency and postage stamps from the “Antipodes," his imaginary surrogate nation.
Another attempt was Herb Lubalin's 1968 Avant Garde magazine special (detail, above, and below, third from top) devoted to "Reevaluation of the Dollar: 19 Artists Design a New One-Dollar Bill," re-casting the mighty greenback in chromolithic colors.
Since we all would like to see positive signs of an economic upturn, below are some of the recent submissions to "The Dollar ReDe$ign Project."
W.A. Dwiggins, 1927
From Top: John Alcorn, Lionel Kalish, Ed Gorey, 1968
Catherine Dickens Kirkpatrick, Plano, TX
David Smoak, Suwanee, GA
Chris Jennings, Dallas, TX.
Matúš Benža, Bratislava, Slovakia
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The examples you selected from 1927 and 1968 show a great deal of humor and an absurdist "Let's take a flier on this thing that will never happen" attitude. Whereas the current examples show not only a lack of wit, but are infused with a severe and Puritanical conviction that changing U.S. currency is not only a possibility but that design can somehow fix something that's wrong.
I am not sure if this is suggestive of the times we live in or of the contemporary design industry.
Great study, now how do we go about getting this design job?