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this is 99% invisible I'm Roman Mars. U.S. paper currency is so ubiquitous that to really look at its graphic design with fresh eyes requires deliberate and

focused attention. So pull out a greenback from your wallet or look at a picture online

if you're in another country and just really take it in all the fonts the busy

filigree micropatients it's just dreadful from a pure designer's point of view, it's...

I don't know, it's...

it's tough because it is a little bit subjective, but...

But, um...

It's horrible. There's like eight fonts on this thing.

Typographically, graphically, symbolically,

if it never been designed before and someone was to submit that

as a solution, I think they would just sort of throw it out.

And I don't want to get too critical at this point

because there are actually pretty

compelling and understandable reasons for its particular brand of horribleness. But I think the primary

tension embodied in the design of the green back boils down to how my friend

Tom Nelson at the blog Humans and Design puts it.

...