After the shocking news of the Egyptian pound floatation, a group of youth were able to think outside the box and launched a creative Facebook campaign calling on Egyptian artists to redesign the banknote of the national currency starting from 25 piasteres to LE 200.
The campaign's Facebook page created a hashtag #Egyptian_currency_design_challenge which went viral on social media with photos of several breathtaking currency designs illustrating the campaigns initiatives that would challenge Egyptian artists to get creative. “This design challenge is an open call to all Egyptian graphic artists & Illustrators to express their thoughts & share their vision by redesigning the Egyptian currency paper money,” the page said.
News design of LE 100
The founders of the page stressed that the challenge is not supported or accredited by any official governmental entity or institution and it is held only for the purpose of displaying our rich Egyptian art and culture by sharing visions, concepts and thoughts from talented Egyptian creative artists with the rest of the world.
New design of LE 100
Moreover the page declared that it does not accept designs for coins and set some standards to accept the artistic conditions. It states that artists must challenge at least one designer or more, by mentioning his/her name in the post and any explicit, political and offensive submissions will not be accepted. It added that the designs could be submitted for both sides of the paper currency (front) and (back).
New design of LE 100
The designers created intriguing designs for the 100, 200 and one Egyptian pound banknotes. Within their creative designs, the artists used photos of various iconic figures and symbols from the Pharonic era including Queen Nefertiti who has the lionshare among the designs including other such as, King Tutankhamun, Sphinx, Horus eye and Karnak temple and the Giza pyramids.
New design of LE 100
Inspiration came to Alaa Medley while sitting at his office and holding the LE 200 banknote, thinking that he did not like the design which seemed dull and gloomy to him. He then proceeded to grab a pen and a paper and stretched his creative muscles to imagine a new glamorous design. “I thought to design something that reflects our culture, and during my research I accidently found the Facebook page. I sent the admin my design, he like it and asked for more designs,” Medely Told Egypt Independent.
The 28-year-old advertisement director and multimedia expert posted a design for the LE 200 and one banknote. Medley’s designs were among those trending on social media that achieved a high level of admiration from people as he put the face of Queen Nefertiti.
The current design of the LE 200
Medley's new design
“I love Nefertiti, I believe she depicts very well the Egyptian woman. Moreover I’m trying to shed light on her beautiful bust which is currently on display at Neues museum in Berlin,” He said.
After a while, Medely posted a new design for the Arabic side of the one pound banknote drawing the Egyptian mosques. “After posting the 200 pounds with Nefertiti bust, I was criticized of intentionally ignoring the Islamic civilization in Egypt and that is not true, as my only aim is the concept of designing a new creative design, so I insisted to design a new design showing the Islamic culture,” He said.
Medely's design of LE 100
Medley designed the one pound because it’s the most circulated banknote among the public compared to the LE 200 banknote. His hope was that the government might consider using the artists' designs to redesign the Egyptian currency banknote. “It’s no more than a game and an artists' challenge but, truly, I was impressed by the surprising positive feedback”, he said.
New design of LE 200
New design of LE 100
