Snøhetta chosen to design Norway's new colorful banknotes

Norway's central bank, the Norges Bank, will be rolling out some fresh Norwegian banknotes, artistically designed by Snøhetta and graphic design firm The Metric System with Terje Tønnessen. The winners went up against six other designers in an invited competition by Norges Bank, who revealed plans of a new series of banknotes in 2013 to make the currency more difficult to forge. Participants had to base their designs on the overall theme of "The Sea", representative of Norway's coastal geography and its significance to the nation.

Snøhetta's colorful pixellated designs on the back side are accompanied by the Metric System's designs on the front, which features more traditional cultural icons throughout Norwegian history.

According to Norges Bank, the final design may look different as required visible security elements and machine-readable features are incorporated. All designs will be exhibited in Oslo this month, and the new currency is scheduled to be released in early 2017.

Check 'em out below.

Design summary from Norges Bank (Text translated via Google Translate):

"Norges Bank's reasons for choosing the front pages of The Metric Systems suggestions are very well adapted to incorporate the necessary safety items. The expression is open, bright and typical Nordic. By using pixel sides in the competition entry from Snøhetta Design as a backing, the notes have both a traditional and a modern look. The traditional phrase on the front clearly shows what the central bank wants to convey: all sides by the sea as the basis for Norway's welfare and economic development. At the same time supports the alternative form of expression by pixel commentary up on each subtopic. In this way a connection between the front and back and the story to be told. Wave pattern that recurs pixel motifs, provides a good reference to the main topic, "The Sea". Color signal of each denomination are well ahead when the two proposals combined. This makes it easier to distinguish denominations from each other, especially for the visually impaired."

The Metric System's designs (front side):

Check out the rest of the submitted designs from the competition here.

For previous Snøhetta articles on Bustler, click here.