THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: British graphic design firm Dowling Duncan has come up with a series of controversial ideas for the Dollar Redesign Project, an open competition run by New York designer Richard Smith (and not associated with the US government). According to their ambitious PR spiel: “we want to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy.”
The new garish multicolour notes conceived by the firm bear a striking stylistic resemblance to the Euro, and remove America’s Founding Fathers altogether. The company has proposed replacing George Washington with Barack Obama on the new dollar bill, and Benjamin Franklin with Franklin D. Roosevelt on the $100 dollar note.
Dowling Duncan, whose corporate clients include some big names such as Apple, Gap, Google, HP and Microsoft, obviously think this is a smart PR move, designed to win it global publicity and enhance its profile in the States where it has an office in San Francisco. But I very much doubt it will play well outside of diminishing left-wing circles on the East and West Coasts. If anything the publicity it gains with its Barack Obama stunt is highly likely to lose it business rather than bring in more revenue, especially in Middle America. Continue reading and comment >>> Nile Gardiner | Friday, August 27, 2010
