When traveling as an American, one of the things I’m always fascinated by (and envious of!) the complex moneys of other countries. In comparison, they’re often more artistic and daring in shape and aesthetic than the plain old US dollar. This project by Andrey Avgust explores what the future American banknote might look like.
Immediately, one notices that they have more depth and detail than current versions. More durable than paper currency, the design is made entirely of thin flexible layers of polymer. Some of its security features include unique PGP encrypted QR code and individual numbers printed by metameric inks that can be viewed under UV light. If you thought they were cool in regular light, just look at them in the dark.
Designer: Andrey Avgust
Brazil's national currency is the real, but you wouldn't know that by looking at its iTunes storefront. Apple prices everything there in US dollars, which has led Brazil's Consumer Protection Secretariat to write a formal letter to the company requesting an explanation. We're not sure why this has taken so long, given that iTunes came to Brazil two years ago, but in any case Apple now has ten days in which to respond or face the threat of a penalty. Other countries that've tackled Apple over its pricing policies in the past have generally failed to reach a resolution, and in some cases citizens have even been urged to take matters into their own hands.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, HD, Mobile, Apple
Cult of MacSource: Brazilian Ministry of Justice
The art of Brooklyn-based artist Mark Wagner is all about the dollar, although the whole thing is clearly worth so much more than the dollars he used to create it. Mark is known as the “Michael Jordan of glue” or “the greatest living collage artist” and he wows once again with his dollar art series.
He basically takes a dollar and another and another to create awesome collages, from portraits of Abraham Lincoln and President Obama to a dinosaur trying to claw away at an bored-looking George Washington.
The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers—striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable… the foreign in the familiar.
It takes a man with true talent to do what Mark does all the time. I can definitely say not a single dollar went to waste in his latest masterpieces.
[via Colossal]