Design H reads the Rivers and birds theme as a single argument about water. It was made by Atelier Goppel-Toperngpong, a two-person studio in Regensburg.
| Design letter | H |
|---|---|
| Theme | Rivers and birds |
| Designer | Atelier Goppel-Toperngpong |
| Based in | Regensburg, Germany |
Design H — Atelier Goppel-Toperngpong. Complete family of six denominations, fronts and reverses. Design proposal only: it does not show an issued or approved euro banknote.
Who they are
The atelier brings together the illustrator Gisela Goppel and the designer Florian Toperngpong, working from a studio in the centre of Regensburg. They describe their shared aim as combining a strong visual signature with storytelling, which is close to what a banknote series has to do: hold a recognisable identity across six different objects.
What the proposal shows
Water is the organising metaphor. The series follows a flow from source to sea, and the ECB’s description presents that flow as a figure for European resilience and cooperation: separate streams that become something larger by joining.
The six European bird species selected for the theme appear along the way, with the white stork on the €50. The reverses represent European institutions through water analogies rather than through direct architectural portraits, and elements of the front and the back are tied together so that each note works as one image seen from two sides.
Where it sits in the process
The proposal was one of ten published by the ECB on 23 July 2026 and open to public comment until 21 September. The Governing Council is expected to choose a single design around the end of 2026, after which development and security testing begin. Nothing in the published plates is an approved banknote.
