In 2017 the new, 12-sided one pound coin will be released with the tails design of the winning entrant to the Royal Mint competition. The deadline for this brief is the end of October so I'm going to complete my first responsive brief by then.
The first step in my design process was of course, to research into what represents Britain, so after coming up with initial ideas and words relating to Britain, I asked a few people what being British meant to them so I have wider variety of answers.
Two questions included: What do you consider to be distinctly British? What are the best aspects of Britain in the 21st century?
The latter response containing some less obvious answers about Britain has made me think slightly differently about the solution to this brief, and whether the traditional coin designs that are familiar to the nation are a pattern I should try and follow with the new coin.
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Ideas
To broaden my knowledge on the history of Britain and the key symbolic properties, I researched further into the royal emblems, traditions and key events from the past few centuries. The notes in my sketchbook are fairly self-explanatory and show my direct thought processes.
After collecting research from various sources, I came up with a few concepts that I believe would work as a design for the coin. One main idea is to incorporate the traditional aspects of Britain and the elements of the modern day society to introduce something that would represent the roots of Britain as well as the advancements in British culture from the early 21st century.
I want to create a futuristic design that incorporates the elements of diverse British culture today and what is to come of Britain in the years ahead. As the design will cover the pound coin for a long time into the future, it should represent the diversity of the nation and the direction the island is heading for in terms of becoming increasingly multi cultural as a society.
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Further research
Research into existing or previous designs is key when aiming to find a solution to a brief. Since the 1980s the designs have followed a similar pattern - using royal emblems or floral designs representative of each country within Britain. The millennium saw a slight change of direction, and the reverse side of the coin depicted bridges or railways. The most recent illustrations following 2010's release are more detailed, and have all four capital cities within each design, one prominently covering the top centre of the design in a larger size.
I also read some articles published about the state of Britain and what the future consists of for the UK. I want my design to represent the ever-changing society and integration of cultures across the nations. In this modern day, multiculturalism and diversity are far more evident than 100 years ago, for example, so thinking futuristically I want to encourage inclusion rather than exclusion and I think having a design that portrays this on the pound coin is something that will be looked back on as a true representation of the beginning of the 21st century in Britain.
What will Britain become?
Obviously I want to show a positive view on multiculturalism, and create a design that's symbolic of the connections and unity across the Isles, which can be associated with the British heritage and monarchy, as well as the sought after equality and harmonious integration between different cultures living in Britain.
Drawing away from the intricate, realistic style designs from previous years, I've experimented with geometric shapes to depict the British Isles - something that can easily be recognised as Britain. This idea then led on to become a mixed up overlay of the separate sections I divided the triangular shape into, in an attempt to represent the gradual change into multiculturalism. This may not be the best way to convey this idea though...
I also considered using an iconic landmark instead of the geographical shape, though nothing stood out to me as being a singular symbol of Britain - other than the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben which seem a bit too obvious, and are only symbolic of the capital city of England rather than all the nations.
Although the traditional heritage of Britain should be portrayed in the design, I hope to create a modern aesthetic, though still referencing the history of British culture.
I played with the range of ideas I'd come up with already and made notes about the concept I want to visualise... fixating on the fact the new coin has 12 sides. This is a distinct change to the will-be-modernised pound coin, so I want to make use of this feature in the design. Ways to do this could be to embody aspects of a clock face to match the 12 sides.
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Developed ideas
These were my thoughts for showing connections and integration throughout the UK, using simplified geometric shapes and lines that reflect the contemporary design of many modern directions of the 21st century.
Connect the dot style visuals show integration and movement throughout the country, showing that different cultural groups are not separated from each other, but interlink and work as a functioning society.
I developed this into a more fragmented image of Britain, fitting within the 12 sections of the coin. I want to incorporate this element of the design into the image as I feel it is of some significance due to the re-introduction of this shape from the threepenny piece, a symbol of the currency pre-decimilisation.
I also looked at representing growth of Britain through use of a spiral formation, though not sure whether to take this idea further.
I decided not to continue with the development of the broken, geometric shapes as this could portray negative connotations and symbolise a fragmented culture, whereas I am trying to affirm the opposite.
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From these sketches I began working on the digital design using Illustrator, testing it out using the template on the entry form. I created an outline of Britain in a more simplified format, as well as creating a suggestion of the islands' shape using curved lines which land at random points within the area. This flows continuously from the top of Scotland down to the southern border, representing the connections between social and cultural groups across the unified nations.
I also tried different variations of type around the image, playing with the angles at which the required 'one pound' could be displayed on the coin. I tried to keep the text at the same angle as two of the dividing lines running across the diameter as this flows with the direction of the image and fits well around it. This is also to add a modern twist to this design as most text on previous coins curve with the border.
Although this design suggests the geographical picture of Britain, I felt that it needed something else to create a more solid image. Bringing in elements from previous sketches, I began creating separate geometric shapes that cover the general land area which will sit beneath the other drawing.
The 12 sided feature of the new coin brings back memories from Britain's 3 pence piece, and I've used this attribute as a grid for a more contemporary design for the coin. Originally I had intended to use the segments as a guide for the irregular shapes that make up the land, however this depiction wasn't as obvious and distorted the image a bit more. Instead, I've used the grid I formulated from the 12 points as a guide, making all the sides of the central image parallel to one of these. Therefore there's only six possible angles that make up the shape in the middle.
I also changed the colour of the overlaying image to a lighter grey to give the impression that it's raised, and the darker grey for the block image to show it is pushed back - which is how I picture the design would look on the coin.
I tried out a few more variations with the type, after deciding against the more abnormal positioning as the diagonal type didn't look as good. Instead, to make better use of the border on this side I tried out a few options using two of the straight edges as a base for the rotation of each word.
Once I'd mocked up the design on the template, I added the grid structure back in because it seemed empty without, and seeing as the design is integrated with this it seemed appropriate to include.
connections and interactions
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