Clever and Creative C-Notes. Redesign the $100 Bill at Make Your Franklin.

above: the 100$ bill redesigned by Sean Fermoyle

Make Your Franklin is an online community art project devised by French designers Vincent Desdoigts, Martin Joubert and Etienne Lecorre, that allows anyone to design their own version of the United States 100$ bill. They are asking for you to recreate the money with a symbol of modern society.


above: my own lame contribution to the project, Luche Ben (mask courtesy of Mask Maniac)

All you have to do is download the template (a gigantic jpeg of the C-note) and start designing. Then you can upload your finished Benjamin to their online gallery. They simply ask that it be no larger than 7300 x 3000 pixels and no smaller than 1000 x 411 pixels.

Some people have gone all out and created viable and beautiful alternatives to the paper currency, while others (myself included) just had some fun defacing ol' Mr. Franklin with icons and imagery reflective of trendy and popular culture (e.g Disney, Mona Lisa, KISS, etc).



above: bills with popular iconography like Paul Stanley's KISS make-up and Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa, by Molle William and Loic Bel respectively, were amongst the designs submitted

The site has clearly been very popular given that their server was predominantly down yesterday because of traffic.

Here's a few of the bill redesigns from their online gallery, selected at the time this post was written. I'm sure many more terrific designs have since been submitted.

First, some seriously beautiful redesigns of the $100 bill:

Alexandre Manet Pikartzo:

Christelle Mozzati:

Julien Benayt:

Hugo Lecrux:

Arinin Evgeny:


And some funny money:

Two versions of Mickey Money by Didier Gerardin:


Paul Schuler gave it a complete Khadafi overhaul:
A Pink Floyd reference from Thomas Fontaine:

An homage to Darth Vader by Sylvain Weiss:

Agathe Teubner brings the American Eagle to life:

Some colorful currency from Martin Joubert:

Cedric Bariou asks Why So Serious? with his joker version:
Dekker Dryer's Monopoly Money:

Superhero C-note from Arlam:

Wasted Rita's take on a song we all know:

Vivien Cormier's illustrated version:

Fabio Maiorana cleverly gave Ben some time off:

and Cabanes' toxic money:

Bouton Bleue punks it up:

and a lovely minimal take on it from Burkhardthauke:



Give it a try or just view the gallery of submitted designs at Make your Franklin.

We've Heard Of Art As Currency, But What About Currency As Art?

My Money, My Currency by Hanna von Goeler

"My currency work originated in California, while I was studying at UC Davis. I was very interested in camouflage at the time. This interest led me to create my first paintings on dollar bills, between 1992-94, in which I camouflaged/painted images onto and into bills. A death in the family led me to the east coast, and faced with the costs of living in New York City on an artist’s budget, I continued to paint on money."

Below are the works from her My Currency series (click on the images to enlarge):


















The artist's site

"Even today, with the global financial crisis at hand and with political and cultural currencies vying for power, my currency series continues to engage me and feel relevant. This set of work (the 11 pieces shown below) is not a one-time statement about some aspect of money, but a continued exploration of money, currency and agency in my life. It’s a great privilege and joy to show a selection of this work in California, where the seeds for this project were nourished”

-- hanna von goeler

The following 11 pieces are each for sale at the HANG art gallery in San Francisco. You can also purchase them online here.











Purchase her currency works at HANG here.
HANG ART | 556 SUTTER ST. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102

A bit about the artist:
Hanna von Goeler is primarily a conceptual and project based artist, who also explores her interests in smaller works and sketches. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of California, Davis. She completed additional post graduate study at the Jan van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands, a program which selects 25 participants annually from around the globe.

Hanna von Goeler’s ongoing currency project was selected by Robert Storr (former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC and curator of the 2007 Venice Biennale) to be shown at Exit Art in New York City. Part of this series was also featured in the British publication “Another Magazine” as part of a special project highlighting Amercian artists. Five hundred pieces selected from her currency series will be shown as part of an upcoming solo show at the Hunterdon Museum of Art. In January of 2009, a solo exhibition in the Project Room at Sloan Fine Art in New York City, will feature a new installation.

You can add yourself to her mailing list here.