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Canada's Funny Money: Graphic Design Fail?

By Rain Noe - January 29, 2013

in Graphic Design

The last significant change to U.S. currency I can remember is, we added purple to the fives (in homage to Prince, I believe). Canada's gone way further to foil counterfeiters, rolling out polymer bills a little over a year ago. Now that they've had time to circulate, this month Canadian TV personality Rick Mercer expressed his displeasure at the ergonomics of the plastic bills in this video, stating they won't fold properly and have a tendency to stick together.

In addition to this possible materials science gaffe, there may be a graphic design fail to boot: Botanist Sean Blaney, of the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Center, reports that "The maple leaf (on the currency) is the wrong species." Canada is known for the Sugar Maple, which has leaves that look like this:

Norway also has an indigenous maple tree (which has been exported to Canada) and its leaves look like this:

What's the diff? Not just botanists, but any designer, we feel, ought to note the difference. The leaves of the Norway maple have more lobes; in layman's terms, they're pointier. This is pretty obvious when looking at the Canadian flag whose leaf, albeit stylized, is clearly a Sugar Maple:

A Bank of Canada spokesperson has denied the allegations, and given a cloudy explanation that the leaf is meant to be an amalgamation of maple leaves, which doesn't make much sense given Canada's flag. "I think it's just an after-the-fact excuse," says Blaney. "...The maple that they've drawn is quite clearly a Norway maple." Looking at the leaf above the "20" in the topmost photo, we have to agree.

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Joe Doc

10 years ago

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I just wonder why you would compare a watercolor painting to an actual leaf.....http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/177741/SUGAR-MAPLE-LEAF-watercolor-painting-by-Barbara-Fox/Barbara-Fox
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Indigo Mordant

11 years ago

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I don't think the leaf is that bad. Maybe in need of a tweak, but not necessarily abominable. I do however think that the bill as a whole fails to really sell the brand image of Canada. Maybe I'm just an old fart who has been unduly influenced by engravers and the Canadarm, but the airbrushed-in photos of the Queen, icebreakers, and Vimy Memorial paired with stretched out Avant Garde does not instill in me the modern charm or reserved grandeur of Canada.

They call attention to themselves these artifacts that the design was done a certain way with certain tools that have been done certainly to death by now.
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David Berman

11 years ago

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Agreed! And yet there is even more for designers to be concerned with with the new twenty:
http://www.designedgecanada.com/blogs/what_the_new_20_bill_says_about_canadian_design_policy/
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Mitch

11 years ago

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I have to agree with DD. i would post side by side comparisons but I think the time i take will be wasted since Core77 would never post my findings.
But spend a little time looking at sugar maple leaves and you'll see that the one on the $20 bill can easily be considered a sugar maple.
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dd

11 years ago

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Erm, maybe you should look at more than one image of the sugarmaple leaf before you draw your conclusions....

this is foolish to say that the bill doesn't look like the one image you happened to pick from a google search of sugarmaple leaves, that happens to be the most different from what is shown on the bill. In fact, the bill on the leaf is far more similar to an actual sugarmaple leaf... assuming you've actually seen one, and not just googled the image that supports your argument best.

what a lame article!!
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bob

11 years ago

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good find on the parliament building fire. Shouldn't it be the white house burning though on a Canadian $20 bill?
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Scott

11 years ago

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I find it more alarming that it looks the Parliament building is on fire, with the queen's head rising from the flames like a phoenix.
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bob

11 years ago

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this money doesn't look so unusable- I actually love Aussie bills,
but leaf it to designers to get in some fun.
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Ray Jepson

11 years ago

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The first thing that I thought of with these bills is how I liked that they DIDN'T stick together. I'm sure I've handed $40 off to someone and hadn't noticed. These polymer bills slide off one another quite well.

Aaron is right, these are Ozzie technology. Exactly the same.

As for the leaf...I'm sure that this was noticed, but someone said, "I like the Norwegian one better!". The graphic designer slapped it on just to shut someone up and move the project forward.
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Aaron

11 years ago

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The polymer material is made here in Australia where this type of currency has been in circulation for 20 years now and rest assured that we all felt the same way about them when they were first released.
On a bright note, either the material "wears" well and begins to behave a little more as it ages, or we've simply sucked it up and moved on because I can't remember the last time I actually worried about that. Certainly from the point of view of sticking together, they don't tend to do that anymore unless they're dirty or have something sticky on them (though let's not speculate on that right now) in which case you just stick them under the tap and wash them off.
You can also iron most of the fold memory out of them if you have a cloth between the iron and the note.
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adora

11 years ago

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Oh please, botany nerds.
The queen looks like one of the guys from Kids in the Hall, that's what matters!
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Aaron Mc

11 years ago

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We've had polymer bills here in Australia for just over twenty years, and I've never come across any of the problems he mentions. The fold nicely, they don't stick together and they last much longer than the paper bills we used to use. I guess it could be a different film, but I think if they performed that badly then we would have gotten rid of them years ago.

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pier

11 years ago

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And, let it be known, as our reporter alludes to the US Mints' intransigence, the Royal Canadian Mint seems to introduce new money every 1 - 2 years. This just about matches the consumer electronics industry new product introduction cycles.

Also, the one cent coin is no longer being struck, and at time of writing, the Bank of Canada is withdrawing the penny from circulation.
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Tom Mc

11 years ago

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I think this is just another example of government incompetence. Some idiot was put in charge of designing it, and another idiot approved it, and yet one more idiot - instead of owning up to the mistake - invented some schpiel to explain it away with no intention of righting the gaffe.

And we wonder why our countries are looking more and more like Animal Farm every day.
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Justin Murray

11 years ago

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I think people might be being a little too picky-pants on this one. Although the sugar maple is our national "icon", I think the new bill is trying to stay away from iconography and the diagrammatic maple leaf reflects this. Albeit it is far similar to the Norwegian maple than the sugar maple, there are many different species of maple that grow in Canada, and their leaves differ from one to the next.

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