20 AFRO Banknote

Description:

After decades of false starts and feigned promises, the African Union finally achieved what was deemed as impossible: the formation of a common currency. The new currency, appropriately dubbed the AFRO, is common currency backed by the African Central Bank. Above is a 20 AFRO denominated banknote that was minted in Cairo.

Idea:

The idea was borne out of a stressful necessity. In the fall of 2013, I was taking my first art classes at UCLA. In my illustration class, we were tasked with creating interpretations of mythical and fantastical creatures every weeks as part of the take-home assignments for the class. The problem was, at the time, I absolutely loathed fantasy and mythology. While my peers had not trouble using their imagination to bring these beings to life, it was a nightmare for me to bring these ideas to fruition.

At about three weeks in, I was up against the wall. I just couldn’t create these animals and creatures. I was at a loss of ideas. All of my creative capital expended on what I considered subpar, disinteresting work. I just didn’t know how I could create these beings.

Then it came to me: What if… I didn’t have to draw these things as they are. As a big science fiction and technology geek, I realized that mythology and mysticism often found itself as monikers in the technical world. Warplanes are named after birds of prey, spacecraft as given lofty titles that befit the heavenly gods, and ships are christened with the names and creatures that hail for the lore of the seas.

I asked my professor if I could go off script on the topics for each assignment. Not only did she gave me the go ahead, it was exactly what she was looking for.

From there, you can now see one of the products resulting from this change. The 20 AFRO banknote was my take on the Egyptian Sphinx while the 10 ASERO banknote was a take on the Chinese Taotieh. I did many other graphical works following this principle, including mock ups and schematics of vehicles and weapons.

The idea of pursuing currency design came as a follow up assignment in the same class. We were tasked with taking one of our works and creating a type of collage out of it. I was at a loss again. To me at the time, collages seemed dumb, boring, and honestly ugly. They lacked a utility or purpose behind them that turned me off. Then one day, back in my dorm, I was looking at a 20 EURO banknote I kept as a souvenir from when I travelled around France.

It was then my second epiphany hit: Isn’t the design of money just a collage?

That is where I ended with what you see above and through that process, I fell in love security printing and currency design. The 20 AFRO would only be the first in series of works that I would do, following this idea.