Design D is a Rivers and birds proposal by two designers who normally work on books, exhibitions and websites for cultural institutions.
| Design letter | D |
|---|---|
| Theme | Rivers and birds |
| Designer | Rudy Guedj and François Girard-Meunier |
| Based in | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Design D — Rudy Guedj and François Girard-Meunier. Complete family of six denominations, fronts and reverses. Design proposal only: it does not show an issued or approved euro banknote.
Who they are
Rudy Guedj runs an art direction and graphic design studio in Amsterdam, working on book and exhibition design in the cultural and music sectors and publishing under his own imprint, Building Fictions. His clients include MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum and Het Nieuwe Instituut, and his book design won a Golden Letter at Best Book Design From All Over The World in 2024.
François Girard-Meunier was born in Montréal and also works from Amsterdam, on graphic design and web development with an editorial approach to structuring information. He has taught coding at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague since 2021.
What the proposal shows
The six denominations are read as a single continuous journey. Each note carries one of the ECB’s selected bird species crossing an abstracted landscape, and a river runs from note to note, so that the series has a direction: from a mountain source on the lowest value towards open water on the highest.
A band of light shifts across the family as the denominations rise, which gives the set a second, quieter progression alongside the water. On the reverses, European institutions are suggested through human gestures rather than through architectural portraits of their buildings.
Where it sits in the process
Design D was published on 23 July 2026 as one of ten shortlisted families and was open to public comment until 21 September. The images are proposals under evaluation and do not show approved or circulating euro banknotes.
