A bit of history

After Kazakhstan became independent, they chose to still rely on the Russian ruble. Kazakhstan was not really in the position to introduce their own currency, but also did not like the decisions by the Russian financial authorities. In summer 1992, Russia made the ruble a fully convertible currency. After the ruble became tradable on the international market, it lost a lot of value immediately (falling from 130 to over 450 rubles to the U.S. dollar). This caused a movement of huge amounts of old rubles to post-Soviet countries, particularly Kazakhstan, where the ruble was still the only legal currency. This lead to Kazakhstan’s money to quadrupled in just a few months. In November 1993, Kazakhstan introduced the tenge (Kazakh: теңге, teñge), their own new national currency at a rate of 1 tenge = 500 rubles.

Below is the first version of the tenge:

Latest banknotes

In 2006 the National Bank of Kazakhstan issued a new exotic series of banknotes (200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10 000 tenge) with the same values as the previous ones.

The design on the obverse (front) has a portrait layout with the denomination written in Kazakh. The obverse all have the same design. The only difference are the size, colours, values (…obviously) and shapes and patterns in the background.

The most striking element is the handprint. In the hand is the signature of president Nazarbayev with fragments of the national anthem. Also, clearly noticeable at the first glimpse, is the Astana Bayterek monument/observation tower. Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan and the monument symbolises this status. It is also meant to embody a folktale about a mythical tree of life with a ‘gold egg’ that was laid by the magic bird of happiness, Samruk. Close to the top of the note is the blue and yellow national flag of Kazakhstan. More towards the middle is the Coat of Arms.

The reverse of the notes are all different with the value written in Russian. One striking element they do all have in common is the outline of Kazakhstan’s border. Inside the outline map each note has a different geographical ‘view’ and on the outside a unique architectural structure. The name of issuing in Kazakh, the logo of the issuing bank and inscription in Russian stating that counterfeiting banknotes is against the law can also be seen on the back of all of the notes.

200 Tenge (size 126х64 mm)

Outside the outline map is the Transport and Communication Ministry and a winged snow leopard on the bridge over River Ishim. Inside of the outline map is Ministry of Defence and steppes in the background.

500 Tenge (size 130х67 mm)

Outside the outline map is the Ministry of Finance and Akimat (City Hall) of Astana. The inside of the outline map are filled with gulls over the sea in background.

1000 Tenge (size 134х70 mm)

Outside the outline map is the President Culture Center. The inside of the outline map are with mountains in background.

2000 Tenge (size 139х73 mm)

Outside the outline map is the Abai Opera House. The inside of the outline map are with a mountain and lake in background.

5000 Tenge (size 144х76 mm)

Outside the outline map is the Independence Monument. The look of the monument is of great interest to me. It is in the middle of Almaty’s (the capital of Kazakhstan) main square. It is a six-meter figure of the Golden Man* and a winged snow leopard and features the most important periods of Kazakhstan’s history. On the note next to it is the Kazakhstan Hotel. The inside of the outline map are with mountains in background.

10000 Tenge (size 149х79 mm)

Outside the outline map is the Residence Akorda, the official residence of the President. The inside of the outline map are with canyons in background.

Central Bank of Kazakhstan misspells ‘bank’ on money

The first lot of the 2,000 and 5,000 tenge notes, issued in 2006 and printed, had the word ‘bank’ spelled incorrectly. This mistake was not just a spelling problem, but also a political issue. During Soviet times, Kazakhs were encouraged to speak Russian, which is written in Cyrillic script. Since independence in 1991, the country’s own Kazakh language came to use. The Kazakh word for ‘bank’ is “банкі”. On the new note, the word was written with an alternate Cyrillic form of the letter K – “банқі” – which has a slightly different pronunciation.

During the writing of this post, digging into the tenge, I also looked at actual photographs of the architectural structures on the money. Also looking at the different types of mountains on the 1000, 2000, 5000 and the canyons on the 10000 tenge. Kazakhstan has great travel opportunities for an interesting picturesque experience. Something I need to consider at some point for another blog post!

* The Golden Man is an ancient Sacae warrior’s golden costume discovered in the Issyk burial mound near Almaty in 1970; it is now on display in the Central State Museum in Almaty. The snow leopard, according to ancient Kazakh philosophy, guards the Universe. Together, they symbolize the freedom, peace, stability, grand spirit and spiritual unity inherent in the Kazakh people and Kazakh traditions since ancient times. The base of the tower has a group of allegoric sculptures – Mother Heaven and Mother Earth, and two children riding colts, who symbolize the future of Kazakhstan.

Related Posts

• Class A drugs in your great-grandma’s medicine cabinet?
• 8 Faces – Limited Edition #1
• Adobe Creative Suite 5

America Psycho is originally from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The psychological thriller is told in the first person by Manhattan businessman, Patrick Bateman. He is a serial killer in his ’spare time’. In 2000 the novel was adapted to the film by Mary Harron. The talented Christian Bale plays the role as Patrick Bateman brilliantly.

As a graphic designer, when I watched the move, one of the parts stood out for my amusement and appreciation. And in general it is one the most famous parts of the movie – the scene about the business cards. I like watching the business men use their business cards to compete with type, stock and print finishes.

That’s ‘Bone’. And the lettering is called something like Silian Braille.

Eggshell white with Romalian type. Nice.

Look at the subtle off-white colouring. A tasteful thickness of it. My God, it even has a watermark.

View the Business Card Scene on YouTube. I am not able to embed the video in this post. YouTube: Embedding disabled by request.

The image above, of the advert on the billboard has been going around the internet lately. An excellent add-on to the American Psycho repertoire.

I think I need to watch the movie again…

Related Posts

• Peligoni Club Folder with Brochure and Inserts
• British Music Experience CD Case Design Won Second Prize!
• ‘Traditional’ South African Party Invite

The initial thought (and basically everyone else in this particular industry) is to stick the very basic/neutral colours (black or white) for the overall look and feel. This ensure more focus on the actual photography.

Having seen photographs of her style of work, I chose a very dark theme. The circles in the the logo and the background adds femininity with a hint of baroque-style, while keeping the design modern. Typekit provided me with a better option font to create elegant headers.

The whole website is build using WordPress as the CMS. There is an additional blog section (navigation hidden at the moment). This will be revealed when the first blog post is ready (update to follow – hopefully soon)!

Visit website.

I am really fascinated by some of the illustrations. Below are my favourites.

Illustrations

Front Cover

The illustration for the cover by pokedstudio is one of my favourites! Do check out their website. I could not help myself to download and use one of their (free) wallpapers.

February

Illustration by Steve Scott.

April

Illustration by Jo Bird.

May

Illustration by Karen Cheung.

June

Illustration by Migy. Festive for the month of Glastonbury.

August

Illustration by Fabio Coruzzi.

October

Illustration by Toyzmachin. I am fond of this style and the colours used.

December

Illustration by Matt Johnstone. In the spirit of another festive season ahead!

More about the Calendar

The whole calendar is matt laminated. Spot UV have been used on the title of each month. To make things a bit more interesting, I added Spot UV to a few elements on each illustration. It add some texture to the over all look and feel. The illustration below  for January is by Brand Nu.

On the illustration for September by Sandra Suy, I used Spot UV on all the black bits.

The last page of the calender is 20mm longer. This allow to show the logos of the two companies through out the year. A charcoal background colour was used for bottom part (22mm high) of the back page. The logos are in Spot UV only. The rest of the back page has a light cream background colour with information (text in same charcoal colour) and contact details about the two companies.

Only a limited amount of the calendars was printed. Luckily I got my hands on one to entertain me all year around.

Related Posts

• A close view at the Tenge – currency from Kazakhstan
• Adobe Creative Suite 5
• Trick or Tweet – A New Twitter Background

A year before Britain’s new interactive museum of popular music opened, I was asked to design CD style promotional pack for the British Music Experience (BME). The BME is a permanent exhibition at The O2 arena, dedicated to the history of pop music over the past 60 years. I went for a retro style, keeping with British colours from the Union Jack.

The BME pack was printed by PrintHouse Corporation. It is a 125mm square booklet using 400gsm Chromomat Club for the cover and 170gsm Chromomat for inside pages. It was printed on Printhouse Corporation’s Speedmaster, a B1 format SM102-6-P, running Kodak Electra Excel HRL plates.

The design was gloss laminated throughout and involved some complex finishing. The design was die cut into shape, glued to give a double thickness front page but leaving an open ended CD pocket on the back page. The text pages were then taped and saddle-stitched into the case to give a really classy finish.

400gsm Chromomat was used, because of the coated cover weight for maximum strength & durability, but at the same time it retains excellent colour vibrancy throughout. The BME is an interactive exhibition with strong visual content (and sound…) and I wanted to convey this with eye-catching imagery contained in a small, user-friendly promotional pack.

The second prize secured me a weekend to Florence. I will undertake this in the beginning of spring 2010. I can not wait!