Dollar ReDe$ign Project

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A blog from creative strategy consultant Richard Smith focusing on ideas for redesigning U.S. currency, with an open policy for accepting idea submissions. The proposed designs from Michael Tyznik and Michelle Haft are quite pretty. However, it seems as if most submitting designers are neglecting the very real usability problem of the lack of size distinction among the various denominations — a one-dollar bill is the same size as a one-hundred dollar bill, which means they’re practically indistinguishable from one another to many visually impaired people.

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  1. David Coulter

    While different sizes would be desirable, these designs do take (at very least) the blind into account, as the holographic strips have braille embossed on them.

    For the visually impaired, wouldn’t the color of the strips be sufficient to distinguish between bills?

  3. Michael Payne

    Australia has well designed polymer notes and I believe this technology is licensed to many other countries. It has different colours and size for each note. My Nana had deteriorating sight in her old age and the differences definitely make a difference.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Australian_dollar

    Made by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_Printing_Australia and are more expensive to produce but last 4 times longer than paper and have better security features

  4. Phenotype

    I think Michael Tyznik really hit the nail on the head here. He captures all of the elements that are iconic about American legal tender while presenting a design that is fresh and modern. His idea to have holographic colored bars running down the side not only ads security but also makes the bills easily identifiable.

  5. Raafi

    As a typographic rule, I hate when people use dollar sign as “esses.” (not sure how to type that: “S”‘s? S’s?)

    It makes whatever the message is look/sound cheap by obscuring it in the visual language of the hard sell. A poor choice.

  6. Adam Lawrence

    The monochrome and monosize aspect of American bills do indeed make them a massive pain to use. With my Euros, pounds, or kronor, I can see from a glance at the EDGE of my wallet roughly how much is in it.

    Colour stripes will help, but the colour needs to go around the edge of the bill.

    By the way, different note sizes are helpful for money-handling machines too.

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