The goal for this project was to redesign a currency, whether that be a nation, theme park, national areas, or wherever denominations would be used. The redesign must include a story to focus on that is different from the current focus, like how US banknotes are based on past presidents. The project called for three newly designed denominations.

The target audience was for whomever would use the redesigned currency, such as citizens of a nation or members of a museum. My target audience was the citizens of the United States.

I wanted my new currency design to be based off of national parks and the Native American tribes that once lived there. The focus of my banknotes was on the preservation of nature and the honoring of the people that occupied US lands before the settlers. I picked The Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Crater Lake for my three locations because I felt they were the most recognizable and they were distant from each other geographically. I wanted popularity and variety. Then, I researched tribes within those areas, and chose the most significant figure in each, with John Ross, Manuelito, and Kintpaush respectively. To get composition ideas flowing in my head, I found a couple fonts that captured the feel I was looking for, including Della Respira. Also, I was interested in creating a vertical banknote instead of a horizontal one because I read that vertical denominations are more ergonomic and easier to be scanned by banknote readers. Lastly, I made to look up what all the numbers mean on US dollar bills.

I used a tutorial video my professor provided that helped me create a texture similar to the one on printed US currency. I put said filter over the background and over the subject. I then added a border and I made sure to include the flag of each Native American Tribe and the location in which their tribe resided. The purple denomination on the back of my bill is inspired by the five dollar bill. I included smaller details, such as a slight gradient, reefs around the border numbers, and a caption for the Native American tribe figurehead. It was a lot to do in one Photoshopping session, but the draft of the five dollar bill seemed to be liked by my peers during critique.

Many aspects of the draft made their way into my final design. For more technical details, I added the Great Seal that is present on the back of the one dollar bill, the Federal Reserve District Seal, the US Treasury Seal, the serial number, the plate serial, and the Treasurer of the United States's signature. More plant imagery has been added around other features of the bank note for extra detail. The border’s texture came from a copyright-free image that I turned into a pattern on Photoshop. The bumps on the side of the notes are for visually impaired people, however, there still is room for improvement with my technique. The bumps could be easily ripped or it may cause a hassle when putting it into a wallet.