Secret 7 Production

To make what I planned I hired a camera and used a spot light and a circular mirror that it was rubbed with a dense liquid used for cleansing, giving to it a handcrafted look when placed under a light.

With someone elses help, I managed to take different photographs of the mirror in different positions and also varying the position of the light on the mirror.

I used a Canon 1200D with a 50mm of focal distance from some distance so I could have a dramatic depth of field. The contrast was taken to the minimum in order to have a wider registration of colours and more flexibility in the edition, despite I was shooting in RAW so I could change those features afterwards. The number ISO was set as maximum of 400 to avoid grainy pictures. The shutter speed was quite high as the picture was taken hand-holding the camera (this was in order to easily have different shots) and also because the reflection of the spot light had to be visible, avoiding it to burn the image. The diaphragm was as open as it could be to compensate the low ISO.
After several shots, and once on the computer and using Adobe Camera Raw, not much needed to be done, as I wanted to keep the original look. The only thing I tweaked was the contrast and the colours, using mainly greens and blues to bring that feeling of urban night characteristic from the video and reasoned in the ideas generation section.







I was having some doubts about adding some text to it, saying: "Have your own light", but after having a crit the others suggested me not to do it.

There are some other crafting methods to make a similar outcome, but it wouldn't have the details of being a mirror, the reflection feeling.



Sumbission proof:

Currency design - Research

My general design decisions are based on historical and cultural causes related to Spain. As designer, I am going to try to honor the republic of Spain, which would be the representation of a country free of royal family and religion, among many other facts.

Just to clarify, being republican in Spain is like all the opposite of being republican in USA. Normally, people who support the republic are left-winged.

In Spain has only been republican twice: In 1873 to 1874, and the second, from 1931 to 1939. Franco was the one finishing it and his dictatorship lasted for 40 years. The current Spanish government and high social classes are all families and relatives of the tiranny Franco established and left behind.

The design aims to represent how a 3rd republic note would be nowadays with the original Spanish currency before the Euro took over, the Peseta. For that, I've been researching about different personalities that could represent the values of the republic. The ones I would highlight are La Pasionaria, Manuel Azaña, Dalí, Lorca and some others.

I finally decided to use Pablo Picasso, as I really wanted to make the note have something to do with arts. Besides, he is the one that really represents the spirit of the republic, as his work, The Guernica, is the representation of a massacre that took place in a small village during the civil war. The intention of this piece of work was to make the Spanish people not to forget who did that.

But there is other features to consider if I want to make the bank note richer and with deeper meanings.

Despite old republican notes are quite ornamented, probably the most important fact, a country without a king and royal family, should be represented with simplicity and lack of ornamentation.

If a building is needed, the Picasso museum in Malaga has a symmetry that can fit both in the design and in the concept.

Also, the recent Spanish political party Podemos has republican ideologies and they have gone for a very modernist design approach. Might be a good idea to keep them in mind.

The Allegory of Hispania is one of the most important symbols of the Spanish republic that can be found in many different formats. It's definetely something to include.


About production methods, when the Euro came up, people missed the roughness and personality of the peseta. The size has to be bigger than the Euro in order to bring back that feeling of reliability the Euro has taken away. Since the peseta has less value than before now, the 1000 pesetas note (equivalent to 5 pounds) will have the same size as the old one, so it would look stronger than it should.

I wouldn't use the colours of the Republican flag for a bank note, but since it's an exhibition it will call the attention of those aware of the Spanish history, so it might be a good idea to use them. Also, purple is the colour that makes the difference between the kingdom and the republic, something to definetely to keep in mind.

I think making a design like this could be both controversial and welcome in Spain, and also be quite shared on social networks, which could be very beneficial.

Another thing I realised checking other bank notes is that the people represented on them aren't usually looking at the audience, but somewhere else. My interpretation is that they might have been illustrated like that to represent them as visionaries, with their ambitions and their vision of the future.