Chelsea Market Currency

Overview

As part of an assignment to design a local currency for a neighborhood in Manhattan, I was assigned the neighborhood of Chelsea. Rather than designing a currency for the large and diverse neighborhood, I decided to focus in and design a currency for one building in the neighborhood: Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market was built as a factory for Nabisco, but it now hosts offices, grocery stores, retail shops, and restaurants. The building's architecture is inspired by its factory roots, so I thought it would be interesting to design a currency inspired by its former factory products. Each denomination in the currency adopts the form factor of a Nabisco cracker: Nilla Wafers, Fig Newtons, Oreo Cookies, Ritz Crackers, and Saltine Crackers. The geometric design from the face of the Oreo Cookie is used to tie all five of the designs together.