3AUTUMN | WINTER 2019 Banconota

KBA-NotaSys collaborates on the commemorative note for the 500 years of Orell Füssli

To celebrate its 500th anniversary, Orell Füssli, a renowned Swiss security printing company, wanted to create a house note that would reflect its rich past and at the same time project it into the future. KBA-NotaSys and our leading designer Michelle Bonzon were pleased to collaborate.

In 2019, Orell Füssli, the security printing company based in Zürich, celebrated their 500th anniversary. To commemorate this, they issued a new house note with a design inspired by the theme of ‘time’. Conceived by the Swiss designer, Christophe Métroz, in collaboration with French researcher, Franck Adebiaye, the note is unique for its single integrated design adapted to the technical requirements of three different substrate types: Cotton, Durasafe® and Guardian™.

What Christophe describes as a great ad-venture started back in 2016 with a con-test at Orell Füssli’s invitation. Out of the five participants, Christophe was the one with little professional experience in banknote design, except a short internship.

Christophe visited our Lausanne premises several times to be introduced to our

industry and learn the specificities of banknote design by Michelle Bonzon, our Design Project Manager. During her 17 years in the design department of KBA-NotaSys, Michelle has been part of the team responsible for the creation of 500 banknotes around the world.

The final design was created in collab-oration with Orell Füssli's designer and engraver, Armin Waldhauser. The var-ious graphic elements were convert-ed into a functional concept respecting the requirements of security printing.

Christophe Métroz's work resulted in a very high quality specimen. Its design embodies the theme of time by making reference to the Swiss symbols meticu-lously adjusted on the front and back. We discover a portrait with a grid of pro-portions perfectly aligned on both sides.

Inside the design

“I have been a graphic designer for over 15 years, but this project was very differ-ent from the others,” says Christophe. “For me, the creation of a banknote has much in common with architecture: it is a ques-tion of matching and exploiting multiple physical constraints by choosing and com-bining the elements of this construction.”

The design of the commemorative note represents the space-time in which hu-man experience takes place. A symbolic human face was designed through a com-bination of a portrait by Albrecht Dürer and a picture of an anonymous contempo-rary woman. The city of Zürich has served as a basis for reflection on space, through its transformation from a very old image into cartographic data today. Time is om-nipresent in the symbols of the clepsydra, the spiral, the labyrinth or the hourglass.

This very contemporary note tells the sto-ry of human achievement transcending the limits of time. In this, it is ultimately similar to every banknote, which are the guard-ians of our history, telling the stories of our time but also reminding us every day of where we come from and who we are.Author: KBA-NotaSys