U. alumnus' currency redesign goes viral

U. alumnus' currency redesign goes viral

(Courtesy of Travis Purrington)


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ZURICH, Switzerland — What if U.S. currency didn’t feature the faces of Founding Fathers and presidents?

Travis Purrington, a University of Utah alumnus and former resident of Salt Lake City, conceptualized banknotes that feature discoveries and technological feats instead of historical figures. He first presented the designs as his masters thesis project at Switzerland’s Basel School of Design in 2011, but the banknotes recently went viral and were picked up by numerous publications, including Foreign Policy and Wired.

“I never expected so many people to actually see (my project) and be engaged with it,” he said.

The reactions to Purrington’s designs have been split — design and science publications have been overwhelming positive, but others have criticized him for deciding to take the faces of historical figures off the currency.

“My thesis is chock full of estimates about how some people would react to this and I knew when I was doing this — before I really put any ideas down on paper — that just the very idea of toying with the currency in a somewhat professional or believable manner would bring a certain amount of animosity,” Purrington said.

He said 90 percent of the negative comments come from people who think he is disrespecting the Founding Fathers, but that during his research he discovered none of the Founding Fathers intended for any person, living or dead, to be on the U.S. currency. George Washington in particular was directly opposed to the idea of any real person being on the money because he considered that to be a practice for monarchs, Purrington said.

Courtesy of Travis Purrington
Courtesy of Travis Purrington

After deciding to respect the Founding Fathers' original wishes, Purrington said he was left with the dilemma of deciding what to put on the currency in their place. He came to the conclusion that he couldn’t replace people with other people, so instead he focused on themes of human discovery. For example, the $10 note features the Sears Tower and the $50 note features an astronaut. The reverse side of the $10 note shows a Bucky Ball, which is a molecule discovered by an American scientist.

Currency is built on several different layers of security, so a lot of the details of Purrington’s design can’t be easily viewed online. He printed the banknotes and displayed them in a metal briefcase for the exhibition in 2011. He’s currently in the process of making oversized prints and a collectible series to exchange with collectors and others.

“While I didn’t have access to true banknote security printing, I know enough about the printing process that I can fake some of that with traditional printing,” he said. “A lot of the things people are kind of up in arms about missing from the banknotes — like an American flag or stars and stripes, a representation of an eagle, or the great seal of the United States — actually all of that is there, it has just been reconceptualized and added as a security item.”

Other countries routinely change currency designs. Purrington said the idea for his project was inspired by the Swiss Franc, which has a currency redesign every 20 years. The new designs are selected through a contest.

Courtesy of Travis Purrington
Courtesy of Travis Purrington

Since completing his masters at Basel School of Design, Purrington has gone on to obtain a second masters and he is now working as a campaign designer for a large language-learning company in Zurich. He is originally from Pocatello, Idaho, and lived in Salt Lake City from 2001 to 2009 before going to study abroad.

The banknote designs were influenced by both his experiences inside and outside of the U.S. Purrington said he is the first to say his banknotes aren’t perfect, but since the first barrier to opening closed minds is to put something out there and let it sit for a while, he would consider it a success if his project could help do that in any way, shape or form.

“We all have the same fliers in our back pocket all day every day and they haven’t really said anything new in a hundred years,” he said.

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