Last September the first International Banknote Designers Conference  (IBDC) was held  as an educational and technical forum for those involved not just in specifying but - critically - the hands-on creation of banknote designs (see CN Vol 8, No  9). Out of this forum was borne the International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA), which will be formally launched at the end this month.  Currency News spoke to one of the founding members and President, Mark Stevenson of KBA-NotaSys, about the IBDA, its objectives and the benefits it aims to deliver not just to its members, but to the broader banknote community.  

CN:         What is the IBDA and what are its objectives?

MS:        THE IBDA is first and foremost an association established and run by designers for designers. It's a not-for-profit organisation based in Switzerland and has been created to facilitate communication and information flow between designers themselves, and also between designers and industry suppliers and other interested parties.

The main commodity we are trading in is information. And as an association we will be acting as a secure hub for this information, as well as representing designers at all levels, providing a united voice for the design community, creating greater visibility for designers and enabling them to respond to the trends and meet the challenges of modern banknote printing.  

CN:         What are these trends?

MS:        The best word to describe the trend is 'more'.  There is far more of everything now than there was ten or even five years ago - more choices regarding features and technologies, more processes and more complexity, leading to more expectations from stakeholders (the public, issuers or cash cycle players),  more risks and more costs.  And more is required of the designers too - nowadays, as Andy Ward of Bank of Canada pointed out at the IBDC, they also need to be researchers to find out what people will like, architects, engineers, integrators in putting it all together and also policemen to make sure it then works. 

CN:         And the challenges?

MS:        The challenge is to make the most of these choices, and one of the key drivers of the IBDA is to provide designers with the support to do so.  A lot of new technology, design and printing equipment and new features is being pushed out into the marketplace, and while the industry has been very good at communicating all of this to the decision makers, more needs to be done to provide the same level of support and communication to the designers. They are the ones that have to realise the potential of all the new processes and features, and because they aren't, much of the new technology is sitting there with an extremely high redundancy rate. This view is supported by the fact that we haven't seen any radical new designs in recent years - the problem being not a lack of technology, but the know-how to use it.   

CN:         So how did the IBDA come about?

MS:        A group of designers and interested parties had been playing around with the idea for an event dedicated to banknote design for some time, led by Karin Morck-Hamilton of Crane AB. When I came back into KBA GIORI, I floated the idea past them and asked if they would be prepared to underwrite the event, and they jumped at the opportunity. This basically gave us the green light to go ahead and has led naturally and logically into the formation of the association.

CN:         Do you see the support being given to designers working in reverse? In other words, not just the designers being given better knowledge of the available tools and features, but actually influencing the development of these in the first place?

MS:        Definitely. A good example is the working group we have already established on intaglio engraving, and the Intaglio Engravers Summit that takes place May 21-23 in Budapest.    This came about as a direct result of the IBDC, where many of the delegates expressed their views on (and frustration with) the way that tools are being developed without reference to them, the users.   We asked the three companies that offer these tools if they would partner with the working group and organise a forum where the migration from hand to digitally-assisted or digitally-generated engraving could be discussed. The summit is the result. It will help the  design community ensure that what is being developed is in line with their expectations and requirements, and the bilateral communication between the designers and engravers on the one hand, and the suppliers on the other, should be a win-win situation.

CN:         Can you describe the structure of the IBDA, and how it will work in practice?

MS:        There is a committee comprising the IBDA president and five committee members - all active in the area of banknote design whose role will be to ensure that the association moves in the right direction in line with the wishes of the membership.  I can't announce yet who they are, since some are still waiting for the final go-ahead from their employers, but all five were instrumental in setting up the IBDA. A new committee will be elected every two years, at the biannual IBDC.

In terms of day-to-day activities, meanwhile, we are setting up working groups, the topics and priorities for which have been identified in consultation with the members. Those chosen so far include the afore-mentioned intaglio engraving group, along with working groups for printed features, embedded features, design software, substrate durability and platemaking.

                Teams have already been assembled for several of these, and we are working on putting teams in place for others in the coming weeks.

CN:         How will it be funded?

MS:        Something on the scale of the IBDA can't be run part-time on a voluntary basis.  So from the very outset, we realised we would need a decent budget to get it up and running.

To this end we identified a number of industry leaders in specific sectors and asked them to come on board as IBDA partners.  Part of their role is to make a financial contribution. But they also appoint an IBDA liaison officer, who commits to working a certain number of days on IBDA projects and to furnishing the necessary expertise and technical information in their respective field as required by the members.  

We targeted 14 IBDA partners and so far, 13 have come on board. That will enable us to run our programmes, as well as providing a small surplus which will be rolled over every second year to underwrite the biannual conference.

CN:         Who are the partners, and what's in it for them?

MS:        We can't name them yet, as we are waiting for the finalisation of some of the contracts. But they represent the full spectrum of substrates, printers, ink, OVDs, design software and machinery. We also have partners from the cash cycle side of the industry. The idea is to enable partners who have a contribution to make, without being directly involved in design, to become involved.  

We have spent a lot of time explaining to the partners what we are trying achieve, and the need for their technical, as opposed to commercial, support. They have been keen to become involved because they see the benefits to the industry as a whole. It also allows them to give something back to the industry, and to help make a positive difference.

CN:         What about the members? Do they pay too?

MS:        Yes, there is a membership fee of €350 per year.  And to avoid any dominance by the big players, there is one membership per company - with all members having equal voting rights and privileges.

CN:         Given the nature of our industry, how can the requirements for confidentially and security be met within an open organisation like this?

MS:        This has been an issue, but ongoing dialogue with our partners has resulted in a consensus being reached.

First, regarding membership, no-one gets accepted without being nominated, seconded and their credentials validated.  

Second, we have put in place a system for the spread of information that is bilateral, rather than universal.  We won't be storing sensitive information on the website, even in the private section for members, since we are hub rather than a library. Requests for information and support from members are channelled through the IBDA to the relevant partners' liaison officers, and are followed up so that nothing gets lost. Information distributed is encrypted.  And members will have passwords to access the secure part of the IBDA website and unlock documents.

CN:         What specific 'deliverables' are you hoping to achieve in the first couple of years?

MS:        We will be formally launching the IBDA the last week in January, and will be announcing then the project plan for 2011 and 2012.  

This includes a technical 32-page newsletter produced four times a year for members covering new features, processes and technologies.  

To raise our visibility among central banks and the printing community, we will be attending a number of industry events throughout the year. This starts at the Pan European High Security Printing Conference in Vienna in March, where an IBDA team will be giving a workshop entitled 'Banknote Functionality in a New Series - 5 Perspectives'.  We will also be making a presentation at Banknote 2011 in July and hope to do the same at the Currency Conference in October.

We are running a designer guidelines project to develop a comprehensive reference book providing clear and detailed guidance on everything from machine readability through to durability. No such reference material currently exists at this level, and this project is seen as a priority by many of the members.

We will also be running annual OutReach program workshops to bring designers up to date with the latest features and technologies. We originally thought that these could be run in parallel with events such as Banknote and the Currency Conference, but designers seldom have the budgets to attend those events. So we will be running them on a regional basis instead, with industry partners providing technical updates and content on topics to an agenda decided by the IBDA. The first will be in Miami this November, the next in Asia in early 2012 and another in Europe later in 2012. The workshops will be a very cost-effective way for the IBDA partners to communicate directly with the designers, and a very cost-effective way in turn for designers to get up to date with what's new to the market.

CN:         Won't these workshops compete with your biannual conference?

MS:        No, because they have a very specific technical focus, while the IBCD has more of a focus on core subjects such as functionality, machine-readability, public perception etc.   

CN:         In summary, what value do you think the IBDA will bring to the aesthetics, security and functionality of banknotes?

MS:        This goes to the heart of what we are doing. Basically, a more informed designer community will ensure a sustainable evolution in banknote design. Working towards this, so far we have identified the need, validated this through the IBDC, brought together industry and designers to develop an action plan, assembled working groups and put together a communications plan. By structuring this according to what the designers themselves say they need, we are going to see this evolution.

As for contributing toward aesthetics, I think that you will agree that by its very nature, the artistry of a banknote is subjective and it is ultimately the public and central banks that will decide on that.

But in terms of issues such as functionality, security and durability, I am confident that by making a more informed and aware design community, we will make great steps forward that will be good for the industry as a whole.