Studio Brief 1 - Original Bauhaus Bank Note CAN POST

Due to heavy economic problems after the first world war, Germany found itself in an "Hyperinflation" from 1922-1923. Up until 1923 the value of the Mark rapidly sunk further and new money in higher denomination were issued to deal with the inflation. Germanys bank could no longer cope with the inflation. New denomination of notes ranging from thousands, millions and billions of Marks were issued to keep up with the downfall.


As the Mark began to collapse, Herbert Bayer was called upon to design a series of emergency money for the region of Thuringia incase of economy collapse, only 2 years after he enrolled at the school of Bauhaus. Modernist in its approach Bayer implemented the style of Bauhaus that was geometric, minimal and functional. The modern notes were a complete disregard for the traditional notes of the German mark at that time -- often full of serifs, national symbols, emblems and elegance. It removes any sign of German nationalism and patriotism but instead embeds the clear principles of modernist design and the Bauhaus style.


The bank notes incorporates Bayer's own typeface 'Universum' to reflect a clean and modern aesthetics of Bauhaus. The bank note is functional for its purpose, colour coded to ease communicate with the only non-modern feature on the note is the crest of the Weimar Republic, its sole purpose is to serve as the official seal, giving legitimacy and security to the banknote.