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Participants select fonts that function as coded numeric identities, set values, and transact using a shared app-driven ledger. When real-world economic collapse occurs, communities form new local exchanges to preserve trust and circulation. The proposal also reflects on design research around eviction notices, comparing hostile landlord-facing typography with tenant-centered clarity and calm information.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":11,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/presentations/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/fonts-as-money-a-speculative-proposal-about-financial-inequality/277005/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/fonts-as-money-a-speculative-proposal-about-financial-inequality/277005.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Skyler","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":35},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"How does the Fonts as Money app create a new currency system?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"Users download the app, choose a font that encodes a unique identifier, and assign it a value and name. The embedded font code lets the app track transactions among members in the exchange.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What makes the font-based monetary systems “hold together” across communities?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"A shared belief in the value of the currency. The fonts provide a visual, trusted form that helps communities collectively coordinate around the system.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the project connect the speculative currency idea to eviction notice design?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"Research for an exhibition on eviction compared landlord-facing, confusing typography with more supportive tenant-focused possibilities. This led to questions about designing notices that inform tenants about rights and resources in a calmer way.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},277005,1791721391,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":8,"category_name":11,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":35,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":141},2336464648746,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Fonts as Money, or Money as Fonts  \n1. Fonts as Money  \nWhat if there was a way to use fonts to solve financial inequality?  \nLets imagine a future world where...  \nAlicia, my business partner, and I have been helping each other out fora while now: I’ll water her plants and she bakes me a cake, she feeds my cat and I take out the trash. But we’ve tired of keeping tally of the gifts and bartering so we decide to form our own currency exchange using the new *Fonts as Money* app. We each download the app on our phones and as part of the set up we are offered a range of fonts—each font is a unique set of numbers with a specific identifying code.  \nAlicia and I select a font (once a font is chosen, it is removed from the list of options) and then determine a value—it can be pegged to an existing currency or set independently—as well as a name for our currency. We agree on a opening balance for each of us, and our microeconomy is born.  \nAnd the next time I do the dishes, Alicia uses her phone to credit me three “mgmt dollars.” Using the code embedded in the font, the app keeps track of all transactions between members in that exchange.  \nOne day, Greg comes to our office and decides to join our exchange. He downloads the app and we share our font with him (we gift him a starting value in his account) .  \nThe app is brand new but spreads quickly. The Dumbo Exchange is established to encourage residents to frequent local businesses and restaurants. Members buy into the exchange with US dollars and it is traded at a 1:1 exchange, but is sold back at a lower rate, adding an incentive to use the currency locally.  \nSuddenly the NYC economy tanks and almost everyone is out of work and financially struggling. Rather than wait for the divided Congress to pass a bail-out, New Yorkers band together and form a NYC exchange. Workers are paid with the NYC currency which they then use at the local grocery store which pays the baker down the street, who pays their landlord who lives upstairs.  \nWhat holds these concurrent monetary systems together? A shared belief in their value. The fonts are not physical units, but they give a visual form to the exchanges which allows the community to collectively trust the system.  \nAnd now back to reality...  \nThis speculative proposal came out of a very real and very sobering project we were working on for the National Building Museum. The exhibition was about eviction, featuring author Matthew Desmond’s work on poverty and inequality. As part of our research we collected eviction notices that are provided on-line for free to landlords. In the throes of our research, I received my mortgage bill from a new company,“Mr. Cooper,” that had recently bought up the debt. The letter that came along with the bill, could not have been more friendly and inviting: cute figures and a friendly rounded sans serif font explained my mortgage tome and helpfully offered to sell me more. The comparison of visual styles between the black and white, ALL CAPS, Times New Roman eviction notices was obvious and still startling.  \nFree eviction notice available on-line  \nFriendly mortgage website  \nWhile it’s not appropriate to design the eviction notices to be happy and bright, it brought up a question: What if the notices were designed for the tenants perspective rather than the landlords? What if they provided information about tenant rights and resources? What if they were designed to be calming rather than confusing and alarmist?  \nWith these questions in mind and motivated by the harsh realities highlighted in the Evicted exhibition, the studio decided to start a group design/research project on the topic of financial inequality.  \nJust looking at some of the facts—  \nAmericans in the top 1 percent average over 39 times more income than the bottom 90 percent ([https://inequality.org/facts/income](https://inequality.org/facts/income)inequality/\\#ceo-worker-pay-gaps)  \nAround 30% of American workers make less than $10.10 per hour.","cbCaisHG1mpLT67N","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisHG1mpLT67N","pdf",2007450,24,"English","# Fonts as Money\n## Building a font-based currency exchange\n## Community trust through visible value\n## From eviction notice research to tenant-centered design\n## Facts on inequality and the design challenge\n# Money as Design\n## Money as a medium of exchange","[{\"question\":\"How does the Fonts as Money app create a new currency system?\",\"answer\":\"Users download the app, choose a font that encodes a unique identifier, and assign it a value and name. The embedded font code lets the app track transactions among members in the exchange.\"},{\"question\":\"What makes the font-based monetary systems “hold together” across communities?\",\"answer\":\"A shared belief in the value of the currency. The fonts provide a visual, trusted form that helps communities collectively coordinate around the system.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the project connect the speculative currency idea to eviction notice design?\",\"answer\":\"Research for an exhibition on eviction compared landlord-facing, confusing typography with more supportive tenant-focused possibilities. This led to questions about designing notices that inform tenants about rights and resources in a calmer way.\"}]","Fonts as Money - A Speculative Proposal About Financial Inequality | PDF",1789497000,8]