Norway's New Banknotes are Influenced by Nautical Themes

Norway’s Norges Bank has announced which designs by two Oslo studios have been chosen to feature on the country’s new banknotes. Coming into circulation in 2017, Snøhetta and The Metric System drew inspiration from the theme of the sea and thus incorporate nautical motifs. However, Snøhetta made a playful twist and its design for the reverse of the notes depict a pixelated image of Norway’s coastline. The studio said it looked towards creating a modern visual language, which is furthered by how it cleverly varied the amount of distortion on each denomination. For example, the 50 kroner denominations showcase a weak wind so the image is rendered in short (less pixelated), whereas the 1,000 kroner note illustrates a stronger wind that is represented by the stretched-out pixels. Furthermore, Norges Bank describes these new notes as “very well suited to the incorporation of necessary security elements,” as it works on them further to enable security elements to be implemented. Head over here to check out the full set of notes and to see both sides, where the obverse illustrates the untouched images.