Neighborhood Currencies
November 17, 2009 // Design





Jason Santa Maria asked the Communicating Design class he teaches at SVA to create currencies inspired by local New York neighborhoods. The students randomly drew boroughs out of a hat and were then told to research that area, drawing upon it’s culture. The results were pretty awesome with students coming up with some pretty creative ideas.

My favorite is the image you see at top, which is a currency for the Chelsea area, but more specifically the Chelsea Market. It was designed by Eric St. Onge who ended up basing the shapes and patterns on Nabisco products. As it turns out the Chelsea Market was the former Nabsico Factory:

“Rather than designing a currency for the large and diverse neighborhood of Chelsea, I decided to focus in and design a currency for one building in that neighborhood: Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market was built as a factory for Nabisco, but it now hosts offices, grocery stores, retail shops, and restaurants. The building’s architecture is inspired by its factory roots, so I thought it would be interesting to design a currency inspired by its former factory products. Each denomination in my currency adopts the form factor of a Nabisco cracker: Nilla Wafers, Fig Newtons, Oreo Cookies, Ritz Crackers, and Saltine Crackers. The geometric design from the face of the Oreo Cookie is used to tie all five of the designs together.”

You can click here to see the rest of the designs.

Found through design:related

Bobby

  1. Great project!

    Comment by Jason — November 17, 2009 #

  2. [...] Kitsunenoir 0 [...]

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  3. These are really beautiful! I love your site so much, and since I’ve found it, I check it all the time!

    Just one (hopefully constructive) criticism:
    “It’s” means “It is.”
    “Its” is possessive.

    Comment by J.G. Verde — November 17, 2009 #

  4. [...] KN | Kitsune Noir » Neighborhood Currencies Jason Santa Maria asked the Communicating Design class he teaches at SVA to create currencies inspired by local New York neighborhoods. (tags: Money DIY Design) [...]

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  5. [...] 8.  Interesting design project and idea: neighborhood currencies, via Kitsune Noir. [...]

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