The COVID-19 pandemic is the first truly global crisis. Beyond the loss of life, there are numerous far-reaching consequences such as human seclusion, suffering, economic distress and a sense of helplessness. The Global Cash Community has joined forces to develop an initiative called HUMANIA that aims to support the people in society who have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in their efforts to recover and rebuild.
In response to the current crisis, the Global Cash Community has joined forces to develop an initiative called HUMANIA that will enable each and every member of the community to help and make a real difference for millions of people. HUMANIA is a global platform for the cash community to work together and through their collective efforts, achieve more than acting as individuals.
HUMANIA OBJECTIVES
HUMANIA is all about restoring hope and supporting the people in society who have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in their efforts to recover and rebuild. HUMANIA aims to achieve this by:
- Raising funds and awareness to support post COVID-19 recovery.
- Paying tribute to those who have been in the front line during the fight against the pandemic.
- Demonstrating that cash connects people in a crisis situation thanks to its unique attributes: universality, resilience and trust.
HOW WILL HUMANIA HELP?
The diversity of our community is our strength. Most of us already have ideas about how we can help others who are suffering during this crisis. These ideas will most likely be specific to your region, culture or scope of operations. HUMANIA will empower you to convert your ideas into reality and gain the support for the global community. Our social responsibilities extend beyond the places where we live and work to the actual people who depend on cash to survive, exchange and simply exist as fellow humans. HUMANIA is the global cash community’s social responsibility platform allowing us all to engage, contribute and ‘give something back’ to our world.
HUMANIACURRENCY
HUMANIA will start with the launch of HUMANIACURRENCY. This initiative will facilitate those willing to help, via design activity, to join forces and leverage their design skills as a valuable asset to help reconstruction, post Covid-19. HUMANIACURRENCY is a framework to facilitate the design of currency(banknotes and coins), celebrating and paying tribute to the people, spirit and collective solidarity of humanity during the Covid-19 pandemic. HUMANIACURRENCY designs will not actually become or replace circulating currency.
HUMANIACURRENCY is open to all organisations within the cash community and we count on industry-wide support to make HUMANIACURRENCY a success. Since we all share a collective responsibility, we invite all stakeholders in the cash community to support the initiative. Stakeholders can participate either as individual organisations or through industry associations.
HUMANIA is not limited in its reach or scope to helping society during the COVID-19 crisis. HUMANIA is a scalable infrastructure that can adapt to global, national, regional and even micro social requirements. HUMANIA is a new way of engaging with our world and demonstrating our social responsibilities through affirmative action when and where it is needed most.
HUMANIA has been launched with a currency design initiative, inviting designers to tell their story by capturing a moment in time from the COVID-19 pandemic and depicting it visually in the form of a banknote or coin. These designs will help us remember and celebrate those special people who demonstrated an exceptional degree of courage, humanity, and solidarity and directly contribute to raising funds to help societies most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, we have received several design projects, and we wish to sincerely thank these people and their organisations for demonstrating a true sense of solidarity and wishing to give back to society by telling their story via a piece of artwork. The first organisations to submit artwork and design material to the initiative are:
- SICPA
- CCL Secure
- Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions
- Independent Currencies
- KURZ
The HUMANIA initiative continues, and the more people who participate, the stronger our impact will be. We count on you to take a little time to give something back to our world – have a little fun by visually telling a story, provide prepress or production services for a particular design, help market and distribute the final product. You can do this alone, as a team, or as a corporate entity. Not everyone needs to be a banknote designer- What really counts is that you participate…!
Here are some of the HUMANIA designs received to date:
Organic Algorithms
Designers: Sebastien Freuler & Gregory Syrvet
The HUMANIA specimen alludes to current social issues that have arisen during the pandemic. With the rise of digital communication and social distancing, we seem to be drifting away from the human experiences and connections we knew only a year ago. The specimen questions the essence of our human experience and how it is changing. Two faces stare at each other through polymer windows connected through the web of geo-localized information: a two-faced society, the self, and the digital self. Our human DNA merges with information gathered through ever-expanding digital webs that simultaneously bring us together yet distance us from one another.
“With the rise of digital communication and social distancing, we seem to be drifting away from thehuman experiences and connections we knew only a year ago.”
– Sebastien Freuler, SICPA
The Future Opens its Arms to Us
Designer: Carlos Almenar-Diaz
The Coronavirus has left us all in dismay. A virus that has forced many of us to remain confined and isolated for long periods. A virus that has disrupted the economies, education, culture of all world nations without exception. A virus that has distanced us from our loved ones. A virus that has made us reflect and change our lifestyle and how we work.
The HUMANIA project is a journey for all of us. Through art and currency design, this initiative serves as a channel that allows us to join forces, build to bring us back together, celebrate, and pay tribute to people with the spirit of collective solidarity and humanity during the Covid-19 pandemic. At CCL Secure, a banknote concept called HUMANIA Currency has been created, under the motto: The Future Opens its Arms to Us. The design is conceptualized depicting the reconstruction of a new world; it is a modern concept inspired by geometric figures and colours to represent a futuristic polymer note that opens our imagination to the future. The message of this note is the outlook towards a new world where society harmoniously integrates with nature through the solid foundations of respect for our environment and our community since we are all part of a global society.
“The message in this design is the outlook towards a new world where society harmoniously integrates with nature through the solid foundations of respect for our environment and our community since we are part of a global society”
-Carlos Almenar-Diaz, CCL Secure
Solving Inequality
Designers: Michelle Bonzon-Vuilleumier/ Giovanni Galuffo
Any form of crisis brings out inequalities and makes them more visible. The health crisis we are experiencing disproportionately affects the most vulnerable individuals in crucial dimensions such as health spending, access to education, the labor market, gender equality, etc. It reinforces intra- and inter-country inequalities. In all major crises, ambitious political measures are necessary to ensure a better distribution of wealth, equality of opportunity and gender, and a more humane economy for all. Regardless of their origin, social status, or race, all humans are interconnected with their fellow human beings. This is clearly visible through the crisis in the difficulties we are going through that separate us and the numerous acts of solidarity and mutual aid that recreate social links and restore faith and courage in a brighter future.
“The health crisis we are experiencing disproportionately affects the most vulnerable individuals in crucial dimensions such as health spending, access to education, the labour market, gender equality, etc.”
-Michelle Bonzon- Vuilleumier, Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions
Humanity
Designers: Phillipe Mermoud/Jérome Badan
Humanity in the first sense refers to all humans. It is in this sense that this project is focused and developed. The goal is to break out stereotypes of race, skin color, etc. The project is focused on connectivity, interconnectivity between people, which symbolizes a human chain, knowledge, mutual aid. The objective is to remain neutral so that the different cultures and races can identify with it and that no emphasis should be placed on any skin color, religion, or others.
“The project is focused on connectivity, interconnectivity between people which symbolizes a human chain, knowledge, mutual aid.”
-Phillipe Mermoud, Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions
Sincerity/Home Schooling
Designer: Tom Badley
Depicting humanity’s shared experience about Covid-19 creates a challenging layer. The actions of governments’ response have been met with every reaction: from complete acquiescence to violent backlash. Regardless of the politically correct perspective, any cash product that is not sympathetic to the public’s diverse experience is doomed. My design is purposefully absent of Covid-19 imagery and instead features a seated meditating figure: a universal symbol of quiet introspection. The theme is mindfulness, a return to stillness, regardless of the chaos of the world.
The enduring image of Covid-19 will be the homeschooling phenomenon. While the meditating figure on the front offers the ideal, homeschooling has become a reality for millions of families. Whereas before, parents conveniently dropped children at school in the morning, and the parents were compelled to their place of work. The collapse of both worlds into one has forced both parents and children to question their role, their ability to perform, and the function or disfunction of their own family unit. The consequences this introspection will have on the nature of education, family, work, and of course, money itself will change the direction of the world forever.
“I consider cash to be the most sincere of payment methods: it is sensory, engaging us with touch and visuals; it is face-to-face, local; the point of exchange is more than financial, it is Human”
-Tom Badley, Independent Currencies
KURZ Security Element Development
Designer: Reto Karrer 
KURZ, the industry leader in foil security feature technology for over 30 years, approached the HUMANIA project from a different perspective. Rather than elaborating a complete design, the KURZ feature development team decided to support and facilitate other designers by developing HUMANIA-specific security features. These security elements use different formats and technologies for seamless integration into each specific artwork. Many years of experience in designing, manufacturing, delivering and applying patches, stripes, or threads for banknotes enables KURZ to act as a consulting team partner already at the early stage of a banknote design project. This approach added a new element to the project and fully embraced the HUMANIA philosophy of working together to do some good. The KURZ team worked hand in hand with designers to help bring the designs to life through movement and animation, as seen from the first sketches of individual KINEGRAM® elements developed exclusively for the HUMANIA project.
On behalf of HUMANIA and the Global Cash Community, we wish to thank all designers. We look forward to realising the designs together as we move forward to the printing and distribution phases in the initiative.
To find out more about HUMANIA, please visit www.HUMANIACURRENCY.com or send a mail to info@HUMANIACURRENCY.com.