Dutch people have always had ‘a thing’ with designing money. Before the Euro we used to have our own Guilder with a beautiful symbol: ƒ. Dutch money bills were known around the world for their modern and outstanding design. Now we have Euro bills with fake monuments and the Euro symbol: €. If you’re thinking “that Euro symbol looks like a logo instead of a symbol or letter”, you’d be correct. I suppose that’s what you get when civil servants don’t consult typeface experts. But we can still look back at all the great Dutch designs that were made. A highly detailed interview about Dutch money with great examples inclusing the ‘Light House’, ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Snipe’ bills and hidden ‘Easters Eggs’ the designer added to the final design (including a print of his own middle finger) can be found at Creative Review. (Via I love typography). But there’s more: Even though we can’t create our own money any more we still manage to design some great coins every now and than.

The city of Amsterdam just hosted the Cut&Paste Contest; a live Design Battle for sixteen young, Dutch graphic designers. If you think working with a short deadline is though, think again. These guys had to create their design in 15 minutes in front of a screaming audience! Pictures of the Amsterdam Event can be viewed here. The designers (or should I say artists?) are over here. Cut&Paste has set up events all over the world and the big finale where all the winners from the other C&P events will do battle is New York. Great concept! (I do hope none of my clients will attend! They might expect me to do all my work in 15 minutes…)