For this project, students were randomly assigned a country, in which they had to research and redesign that country's paper currency. I was assigned the United Arab Emirates.
Process:
First, I pursued research on the currency itself and the imagery, text, and security features that it was manufactured with. Research about the country itself was also important, as it provided context and ideas that could become part of the redesigned currency. It was found that their currency is called the dirham, in which they have multiple notes.
After research along with examining images of the original banknotes, drafts were formed. As research found that the UAE commonly speaks both Arabic and English, I decided to include both on the redesigned currency; One side being in English, and the other Arabic. A collection of images were digitally altered and compiled together to create this, along with creating a Photoshop effect for the security feature on the currency. All of the imagery / content on the currency comes from the research on the country; The English side consists of animals representing the United Arab Emirates that are naturally found within the geographical area. The Arabic side shows aerial views of significant locations to the United Arab Emirates, some of its major cities.
Reflection: While an older project, this is still one I am fond of. It was interesting to me to recreate something that would be used in daily life, thus needed to be understandable easily by the average person.
