Believe it or not, this is Norway's new currency design, set to be released in 2017. Thebacksides of their controversial new banknotes feature color palettes that look like digitallyblurred versions of the images found on the fronts of the bills.

Both sides of the bills were selected by Norges Bank during a competition held in the spring of2014. The front side contains a series of artwork by graphic design studio The Metric System andTerje Tønnessen called "Norwegian Living Space," while the pixelated back features a series called"Ripple Effects" by Enzo Finger. The front features various ocean scenes of importance to theNorwegian national identity.

To read the complete article, see:
This Is WhatNorway's Money Will Look Like In 2017(www.boredpanda.com/new-norwegian-banknotes-pixel-bills-design/)

Norges Bank has announced that designs by two Oslo studios have been chosen to feature onNorway's new banknotes, which will come into circulation in 2017. Snøhetta's design for thereverse of the notes features a pixellated image of the country's coastline, the amount ofdistortion depicting the wind speed as it whips up with each denomination...

Earlier this year, eight designers were invited to submit proposals for Norway's newbanknote design on the theme of 'the sea'. Today, the central bank of Norway announced thatdesigns by The Metric System and Snøhetta will be used on the obverse (full set shown bottom ofpost) and reverse sides of the banknotes, respectively.

Snøhetta's design, 'Beauty of Boundaries', renders images from the Norwegian coastallandscape in a mosaic-like pixellated form. Using a modern visual langauge, say the studio, theyaimed to respresent where the sea and land meet, reflecting the communities which thrive on thecoast.

According to the Norges Bank catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the shortlisted work, thepatterns generated on the studio's designs for the reverse refer to the Beaufort wind forcescale. On the 50 kroner denomination the wind is weak, so the image is rendered in short, squareshapes; while on the 1,000 kroner note the wind is strong, creating longer, stretched-out forms and- while difficult to discern in the images shown here - choppier waves in the water.

It's such a refreshing idea and reminded us of the kind of attention to detail on show inthe work of the great 'Ootje' Oxenaar, who designed the Dutch banknotes in the late 1960s -and often included 'personal' touches in the designs, to the annoyance of the Dutch CentralBank.

To read the complete article, see:
Norway'snew banknotes influenced by the sea air(www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/october/norway-banknote-design-pixellated-snohetta)