Norway's new series of banknotes belong in a gallery rather than a high-security vault or stuffed into a wallet. Earlier this year Norges Bank invited eight local design studios to produce concepts for the design of a new series of moolah notes.
The Norwegian central bank's brief instructed participating agencies to focus their designs on "the sea." A simple yet fascinating entity that plays a huge part in Scandinavian culture. Ultimately, only two designs were selected. The wonderfully abstract, pixelated blur of Snøhetta for the back of the notes and the more literal drawings of The Metric System for the front.
The reverse of the note by Snøhetta
From Snøhetta's website:
'Human beings settle nearby rivers, mountain chains, mountain passes, and coasts. We settle near boundaries – near the boundary between one element and the other.
The beauty of boundaries is about the transition between sea and land, where something meaningful and interesting happens. Over time the sea becomes commonplace, just as land easily becomes so. However, where sea and land meet there is life. There is life in the same way as life on earth exists between sea and air, between land and air. Where water meets earth, soft meets hard, wet meets dry, life is created.
Our long coast has created our identity, our heritage, and our industries. It has created national and international transport opportunities, as well as the creation of our welfare society. It is a vivid meeting that creates life'.
The front of the note by The Metric System
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Under the title 'Norwegian Living Space', The Metric System's entry features detailed illustrations that capture multiple elements of the ocean and Norway's coast. Norges Bank said The Metric System's design is "very well suited to the incorporation of necessary security elements", and combined with Snohetta Design's entry "will give the notes both a traditional and a modern expression."
The bad news for any Norwegians or tourists wishing to visit Norway and spend some of these beauties, is that they won't be available until 2017 at the earliest.