Banknotes : It’s Not All About The Benjamin

I am so extra…but only in an educational way.

Everybody knows teaching can be hard work. Sometimes, I wonder why on earth I started doing it at this age. The pace is simply ridic for a woman in her forties with not a few injuries to nurse.

But, then, other times, I'm like, YOOOOO! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!

Case in point, this past week, one of the elementary teachers asked me to design a bill for her room. She wanted to call it, "Cain's Cash". Now, I do a few special projects from time to time for the school that are above and beyond...I try to make the ones that go beyond the school day few and far in between because, honestly, I don’t have much time beyond the school day. That’s #teacherlife. But, every once in a while, I get way too excited about somebody's idea and I can just feel the extra in me starting to get all fidgety to come out and play. 

This was one of those times! 

Can I tell you when I started thinking about lettering play money?! And then when she said I could do whatever I wanted and get it back to her whenever I was done?! Pfft. That's almost like a blank check! Well...technically, it would be if the newsletter weren't already due and the bulletin board didn't need to be swapped out...I digress.

Still, it doesn't get any better than that! 

I told her, "You know I'm extra right?"

She replied back, "Good, 'cause I am too!" 

Boom. That’s all it takes.

The first thing I did was look at the $1 bill, because, maybe there'd be a few ideas I would want to use from it. And then, I had to look up the typeface that was used on the bill. 

And then, I saw it...

A response from Quora.com came up at the top of the search that named the lettering on the bill as Banknote Roman by the banknote designer. Furthermore, it was all handlettered! Even more than that, currency design is a thing and the most recently written about currency design in the States was the redesign of the $100 bill by a banknote designer named Brian Thompson. And here's the kicker that I truly wasn't expecting...Brian Thompson is black! He's the first black man to ever design a banknote. 

Talk about lettering and black history! 

Apparently, he got into the profession right after graduating from high school in 1988. He apprenticed for seven years. For the first three years, it was nothing but lettering by hand. Once the apprenticeship was complete, he graduated to the rank of journeyman or a master craftsman in the art of banknote design. At some point, he also found time to attend UDC (University of the District of Columbia), graduating in 1997 with an Associate's in Advertising Design. Fascinating, right?

The day-to-day of a journeyman is a lot of research, design, meetings and security, it seems. Very immersive stuff. For instance, Mr. Thompson, worked on the design for the $100 bill for seventeen years before it was ready to go. Seventeen actual years. Now, that's commitment to the same drawing board for about 16 years, 11 months, and 20 days longer than I could muster. ;) 

With the time I had to devote to this before it fell off the radar, I did wind up simplifying a few things and trying to strike a balance between making it legible for the kids, fun to use, and complex enough to enjoy it. I added some hidden features of my own too. For one, I doodled a little snake because they have some bite! Plus a butterfly because they are beautiful and sweet. Ms. Cain is known to be nice and always styled to the tee...but "she don't play." I also added the HERO Creed going around in a circle, kind of like a seal. So, that was pretty cool.  

I'm sure there will be a few more edits to make it work for her class, for our “Responsive Classroom” school, and for me. But, I'm happy with this start and the layout. Maybe I’ll try a derivative of the actual Banknote lettering style for the name of the bill? We’ll see.

But, I'm so in awe of Mr. Thompson's entire story! It made me love this mini-project even more to learn some of our history along with the history of US Banknotes. Pretty awesome!

Next time you get a cool $100 bill in your hand, take an extra moment in that beautiful mind of yours to think about the history you hold. At the end of the day, maybe it's not ALL about the Benjamin.