Designing for CINEMA™ – A New Dimension in Banknote Security

CINEMA™ is a ground-breaking security feature for banknotes, launched in 2020 by CCL Secure.

The feature uses advanced micro-optics to create 3D and novel effects such as movement, depth, float, flip effects, and magnification – all in normal lighting, without the need for UV or other special lighting techniques.

The 3D effect means that the note appears as if you could reach out and touch images floating above the note.

As well as offering a dynamic new dimension to security, CINEMA represents new opportunities and challenges for banknote designers. As a designer, how do you start coming up with ideas for incorporating this very new technology into a traditional banknote?

The first banknotes to use CINEMA were the Banque du Liban’s 100,000 livres issued in 2020 and a promotional banknote called ‘Chaplin’. In both notes, designers have just started to explore the capabilities of CINEMA and what can be achieved with a range of colours, shapes, and design integration as well as its 3D and movement properties.

The flexibility with colours is particularly useful in the creation of designs that help the public to differentiate between banknote denominations. The colour range also makes it difficult for counterfeiters to ‘harvest’ security features from a lower denomination for use on a fake higher denomination.

As CINEMA is incorporated into the GUARDIAN™ polymer substrate in a single step during the production process, there are none of the limitations that are sometimes associated with applied features such as threads and foil stripes.

CINEMA is not constrained to a linear top to bottom format as is familiar with threads and foils; indeed, it isn’t even limited to being in a single location on the note. As CINEMA is formed as part of the substrate production process, it can be applied in a range of organic and natural shapes. It is quite possible to have more than one area of the CINEMA design element of effect on a banknote.

When considering the size of the CINEMA feature, designers have a great deal of scope, and the feature can be tailored to work with other elements of the banknote. CCL Secure recommends a minimum area of 25mm x 25mm to enhance the overt quality of the feature. This creates a strong visual impact on the note and also provides ample space to include a range of effects. Larger surface areas are particularly beneficial when having feature effects that appear to sit several points above and below the banknote surface by several millimetres.

The Chaplin note was designed by CCL Secure and originated and printed by PWPW. The front of the note features a striking portrait of Charlie Chaplin in his iconic Tramp costume and the reverse shows an image of Chaplin’s legs and cane, inspired by the film ‘Modern Times’. The half window and secondary window are both designed to represent film reels, which tie in with the floating images in the CINEMA feature itself.

The Lebanese 100,000 livres commemorative banknote celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon was designed and printed by PWPW. On this note the CINEMA feature has been integrated into the intaglio vignette of the entrance of St John-Marc Church in Byblos, the CINEMA feature itself forming the shape of the arch in the doorway. The colour of the CINEMA feature has been selected to work with the overall aesthetic of the banknote.

Looking closer at the CINEMA feature on the Lebanese note there are three layers of perspective. An in-depth effect where the date switches from 1920 to 2020 as the note is tilted. Then, at banknote level is a 100 symbol enhanced with a cedar tree, and floating within the two zeros in the number 100 is a magnified image of the 1920 and 2020 backgrounds.

Both the Chaplin and Lebanon notes also show how the CINEMA feature can be combined into a finished banknote with offset, two-sided intaglio, letterpress and varnishing as part of the finished design.

Even in its earliest usage, CINEMA adds extraordinary depth and movement to the arsenal of security features available to today’s banknote designers in a security feature that is available only with GUARDIAN polymer substrate. The development and design rules for 3D imagery within the feature, as well as new learnings for integration, are already well developed as a result of extensive research, testing, and – ultimately – the practical application of the feature in Banque du Liban’s note.

The base film of the banknote – a special variant of the Propanote™ Clarity C film created by Innovia Films specifically for CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN substrate - is an intrinsic part of the CINEMA feature. The film combines micro-lenses on one side and image elements on the opposite side to form a feature that is fully integrated into the substrate.

This opens ground-breaking possibilities for designers, as well as forming a significant countermeasure against potential counterfeiters. Counterfeiters who, for example, have been known to source individual security features from the internet, find this route is closed to them.

The result is more secure banknotes for the future and banknotes which engage effectively and dynamically with the public, providing a new window technology and a different dimension to designers.