Polymaths.social

If you missed it, there are new Euro banknote designs that you can vote for.

https://surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro/

Sadly, my highest vote of all the designs was "I neither like nor dislike it". Ninety percent of the designs are outright ugly, non-relatable, or break the Euro banknotes best feature.

I think putting personalities on the banknotes is a no-go, because it creates a precedent of member states comparing each other based on whether their national person is on a banknote or not, and if yes, what denomination. We had this in Russia with cities already: Small cities feel forgotten because they never have a chance to appear on notes, cities that were put up in a poll to appear on 200 and 2000 ₽ notes started a shit show by rigging the vote to the point that it had to be cancelled It's a bit better here, as it seems that personalities were pre-elected and fixed, but then it's kinda sad for 75% of member states not getting a proper representation.

Birds are much better for this, but still not perfect. I like the motive of displaying the birds, but I also don't feel very much connected to them either. Born and raised in cities, I frankly don't see birds as much :(

Then, some of the designs feature "people", by which I mean groups of illustrated people doing stuff like learning, researching, talking, whatever. The idea is nice, but all designs make them look like corporate stock illustrations. Design C is straight up Corporate Memphis.

Lastly, the EU buildings. The least offending one, but also quite bland and boring. I like the current banknote buildings because they feature different architectural styles and are pretty to look at. EU administrative buildings are not that pretty: They're just glassy structures lacking any distinctive style or soul. Especially the Court of Justice looks quite dystopian.

Of all designs, Design G is the one I'd be fine to live with; I find it pretty in terms of shapes and colours. Design I is also quite nice, but looks more like Japanese paintings rather than something European. The rest, sadly, looks like what tourist-trappy souvenir shops would sell an unknowing American for 10 Euro a pop.