Money Map of St Lucia collage and limited edition prints

Commission to create a Money Map of St Lucia and a print edition for the Sugar Beach Resort, St Lucia. In my initial research I found the East Caribbean Dollar (a communal currency like the Euro) was in a transition from paper banknotes, to a brand new series of designs on polymer. There was a choice to make the map with the existing paper notes, or to wait for the full series of new designs to be released. The client and I agreed it would be better to wait for the new complete series of new notes rather than to make it with the paper notes, not only as they would soon be out of date, but also as the colour and design of the new notes were looking really beautiful, so the map had to wait around 3 years for the full release to the new designs.

I wanted to use all the denominations of the banknotes to get as much colour into the map as possible, so based the map on the 10 districts that St Lucia is divided into for administrative purposes. I also wanted to make a feature of the area around the island so created a coral pattern for the sea. This idea sprang from a design element on the notes themselves, all of which feature different coral patterns.

The coral was then hand gilded with metal leaf, chosen to  compliment the silver holograms which feature on the notes. The coral also worked as design for me as the islands’ coast line is fringed with actual coral reefs.

Once the original collage was completed this was then translated in a limited edition print, made exclusively for the hotel.