Date the House Note was released
Project Team
LEONHARD KURZ Stiftung und Co. KG together with OVD Kinegram AG and Andreas Iten
Project Description
We designed the Tree of Life sample folder to celebrate 30 years of securityproduction at our Sulzbach-Rosenberg facility. This anniversary note series is ajubilant display of our expertise and the pleasure we take in our work, and athank you to our loyal customer base who has trusted us through the decadesto meet their most sensitive secure document needs.
Design Theme
The Tree of Life is a joyful celebration of 30 years of security production at our Sulzbach-Rosenberg facility. It showcases our expertise and the pleasure we take in our work. It is also a warm thank you to our loyal customers, who have trusted us down the decades to meet their most sensitive secure banknote/document needs.
The design centres around an oak tree, symbolising growth, stability and the deep roots we have in the Sulzbach-Rosenberg region. It reflects our endless cycles of innovation, from strong foundations of wisdom and knowledge to new branches and shoots of development and creativity. Each note’s design interprets this underlying theme, showing facets of how KURZ has continuously reinvented itself over the years, honouring the past while looking forward to a secure and dynamic future.
By day, our oak draws water up from the earth to nourish each bough and leaf. On the note’s reverse, a bird swoops in to perch amidst the foliage where, when spring comes again, it will nest, and the tree will cradle a new generation of life.
By dusk, the tree is softly lit by waning daylight, shadows lengthening as evening approaches. Treading amongst the leaf litter, deer are alert but soothed by the steady, towering presence of the oak to which they will return again and again throughout their lives.
By night, the tree is bathed in moonlight that silvers its knurls and contours, shaped throughout the aeons of its long life. A fox races past its mighty trunk, seeking opportunity in any small mammals or insects it might catch sleeping and unaware.
This playful, pleasing imagery recognises the interconnected nature of our world – and our business – and the seasons of our lives.
Integration of Security Features
The Tree of Life celebration notes combines meaningful messaging from KURZ Banknote Security to our community, backed by our cutting-edge, layerable technologies. The stars of our security show are:
Day Celebration Note: KINEGRAM ZERO.ZERO® Stripe, with surface relief, flux effect, colourful movement and moving microtexts.
Dusk Celebration Note: KINEGRAM® HDM Stripe, with deep spots and coloured mirrors, achromatic and oblique angle effects, microtexts, plus UV print.
Night Celebration Note: KINEGRAM® COSMIC, with surface relief, fine line movement, flux effect, colourful motion, pump effects and microtexts.
All Tree of Life house notes have a KINEGRAM® VIVID Patch, with powerful kinematic movement, depth effects, and activation in all directions.
Produced using proprietary KINEGRAM(R) technologies and equipment – kept secret even within KURZ – these features provide a unique, instantly-identifiable ‘optical fingerprint’ for banknotes that defies replication and makes counterfeits easy to spot by their obvious lack of quality and ‘wow factor’.
Other Aspects
The Tree of Life is a love letter to our history, our staff, the KINEGRAM(R) technology and our customers. It harnesses the immense aesthetic potential of our banknote technologies to demonstrate how the most beautiful notes can include cutting-edge security features that confound counterfeiters and serve the public with intuitive validation.
Thank you for your consideration of this little series for your Best New House Note award, and we hope you have enjoyed reading about the inspiration behind it, and looking at the designs, as much as we enjoyed the creative process.
