Jul 5, 201023 appreciated comments
Indian rupee to get new symbol
The Indian rupee is all set to get its own unique symbol, joining the club of other international currencies, such as, dollar, pound sterling, euro and the yen as currencies with an identity that is recognisable worldwide.
If you can’t see the YouTube video above, view it here.
The Economic Times ran a survey asking for a selection from the options below.
It’s likely the chosen symbol will show the Hindi alphabet “R” with two lines, and the Hindustan Times reported the new rupee symbol would come from a shortlist of the following five.
Thanks for the tip, Guido.
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23 appreciated comments, click here to add one
obse.
What’s the difference between 2nd and 15th options?
Please don’t let them use Arial!
I would choose the 18th one.
Jul 5th, 2010
Ivan Tolmachev
Russian rouble also has an internationally recognized symbol, launched not that long ago http://www.google.ru/images?um=1&hl=ru&newwindow=1&client=safari&rls=en&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=rouble+symbol&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Jul 5th, 2010
Saveindianrupeesymbol.org
RTI Activist exposed violation of guidelines and biased selection process in “Indian Rupee Symbol” design competition.
According to RTI Documents: saveindianrupeesymbol.org
1. Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists.
2. One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
3. Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
4. No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
5. Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it.
6. Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
7. One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
8. All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
9. No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicated, how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received?
S
Jul 5th, 2010
SOKO
It has to be able to be handwritten as well. As much as I like 2 / 15
they would be odd to reproduce in hand writing. as would #6 and 18
4 seems to be the most reasonable
Jul 5th, 2010
shettler
Numbers 4, 5, 8, and 2/15 are all pretty much the same solution: Strokeless R with a slash through the tail. I think this is the best solution.
obse: Every font is going to render them slightly differently; a Gotham dollar sign looks different from an Arial dollar sign, and both look very different from a Times dollar sign.
SOKO: Agreed, it needs to be handrwitable; simple is what will win the day, or simple and distinct. I’ve seen plenty of lowercase “y” handwritten yen symbols, and they suffered no loss of clarity.
Jul 5th, 2010
Ocetalo
5 seems to be the easiest to handwrite and looks printable. 4 is also good but it will look kind of odd with some fonts (unless it looses some curves) The other ones guess they will give a funny time in writing.
Just an opinion
Jul 6th, 2010
onefish
this would be my rupee sign symbol if i was able to submit it. super clean, simple, easy to translate into other fonts, and easy to hand write. instantly recognizable as both an R and a money sign.
http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/4681/renmibi.jpg
Jul 6th, 2010
nirav
Frankly I didn’t like 2nd or 15th options either. We write number 2 in hindi like this. So it no where stands out as an R to be frank as most of the people who are india will recognise this as number 2 in hindi, marathi, gujarati and other similar languages.
Jul 6th, 2010
Taylor Coil
Of the shorter list, I like 1, 5, and 4- solely because the typeface is simple enough to be scrawled with a pen and still look like the typed version.
That said, I think 1 is the most unattractive to the eye. 4 is my favorite.
Jul 6th, 2010
Adam
8 and 13 weren’t made out of the blue, they’re replicas of Batelco.
Jul 7th, 2010
Paul
#2 and #4
Jul 7th, 2010
mm
So many of these bear a resemblance to the Rx symbol. #2 and #15 are particularly questionable in that regard.
Jul 7th, 2010
David Buchanan
Well at first glance, of the shortlisted options, 2, 4 and 5 are essentially the same character. In simplistic terms the right hand side of the letter R with a couple of bars. So from that point of view are the judges essentially choosing a font?
Jul 8th, 2010
Judy Frary
I prefer number 5 in the shortlist. Looks the most handwritten, and should be better to replicate.
Jul 8th, 2010
Steve Maggs
Personally I like 6 the best, it has a very distinctive look and has an obvious ‘currency symbol’ feel to it. As for ease of handwriting, it’s probably less of a concern these days than in the past and 6 will probably be a cinch for native Hindi speakers/writers who, unlike westerners, deal with these kinds of characters all the time.
Also like the one on the link posted by onefish, more western certainly but clean and strong.
Jul 9th, 2010
vibin
what we need is not another currrency symbol. but world peace. and gun control ;-)
Jul 9th, 2010
David Wright
Whichever symbol is chosen the new mark must be adaptable to all fonts
and quick & easy to write with a pen/pencil.
In my opinion this only leaves four: 1,4,5 and 8
If find the easiest symbols to quickly scribble with a pen and for them to maintain their design integrity are no’s 4 and 5.
I would personally choose No 5.
Jul 12th, 2010
David Airey
Thanks very much for your thoughts.
I’ve just published an updated post that shows the symbol finally chosen by the cabinet (selected yesterday):
Indian rupee symbol selected
Jul 16th, 2010
Michelle Liando
4 is the simplest and very legible.
I would choose 4
Jul 19th, 2010
Jon Gifford
The need for human handwriting in a fast, familiar manner is undeniable. The direct submission of handrendered forms is naive, wishful thinking by those who should know better. Immediate, unfussy reproduction in both mass production and organic communication is paramount. The client’s immediate need was as much unspoken as it is defined herein. To be considered a player in the world stage (as the are) means they are entitled to their place among the ranks of currency shorthand; beside the Dollar, Pound and Euro. These strike me as Anglo-European aspiration and not Pan-Asian self-determination.
Too manipulated – in every sense – I feel. But I’ve been wrong before. And will be again, no doubt.
Jul 23rd, 2010
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