The original thought here was to design a piece to be a commentary on the recent economic crisis in the US, how banks and businesses have seemingly "printed" money throughout a period of time where many citizens have experienced extreme poverty even by our own standards.
The bills you see were designed in Photoshop, and printed out of an inkjet printer, roughly three times the size of a typical bill. The bills were then crumpled and treated with coffee to give them a realistic look. Then, they were scanned to be pieced together in photoshop, and light levels were tweaked to color correct and result in the final product seen here.
