ECB shortlists 10 studios in first euro banknote redesign since the currency launched

The European Central Bank has narrowed its long-running effort to redesign euro banknotes down to ten shortlisted proposals, now published for public viewing. A jury selected the studios and teams behind them — a roster that includes Studio Joost Grootens, Neue Gestaltung, PunktFormStrich, Myrsini Vardopoulou, Isabelle Daëron, and Ville Tietäväinen, among others. The stated goal is a set of notes that better reflects Europe’s shared identity and values, a shift away from the current series’ generic architecture motifs.

The page stresses that everything on display is provisional: these are concept proposals, not the notes that will eventually enter circulation. Notably absent is any firm timeline — the ECB does not spell out the criteria for picking a winner, when a final design will be chosen, or when redesigned notes would reach wallets. For a currency used by hundreds of millions of people, the redesign is as much a statement of political and cultural identity as an exercise in graphic design, which is likely why the ECB is soliciting public reaction at the proposal stage rather than presenting a finished product.