In spring 2014, a competition was held for the design of motifs for the new banknote series. The purpose of the competition was to arrive at a proposal that can be the artistic basis of the new banknote series and communicate the theme "The Sea" in an appropriate manner.

Eight participants were selected by a group of experts to take part in the final round of the competition. The jury has comprised five external professionals and one member from the Bank. They have concluded that two proposals stand out: Ripple Effects by Enzo Finger, and Norwegian Living Space by The Metric System and Terje Tønnessen. The jury has selected Enzo Finger's proposal as the winner of the competition and is of the opinion that this proposal communicates the theme in a surprising way with considerable artistic flair.

Norges Bank has decided that a combination of two proposals submitted will go on for further work. The obverse sides of the notes will be developed on the basis of the proposal from The Metric System, Norwegian Living Space. The basis of the reverse sides will be the pixel motifs submitted by Snøhetta Design, Beauty of Boundaries.

Obverse: The Gokstad ship from the 800s, with the Norwegian-designed bow X-BOW® developed by Ulstein Design & Solutions AS in the background. Signal flag: Letter O.

Reverse: Pixel motif on the horizon: Cargo ship. Cubic pattern: 3.4 m/s. Organic pattern: Gentle breeze. Crests begin to break.

The obverses from The Metric System are very well suited to the incorporation of necessary security elements. The expression is open, light and typically Nordic. Using the pixel motifs from Snøhetta Design as the reverse will give the notes both a traditional and a modern expression.

Norges Bank is now working further on motifs and designs to enable security elements intended for the public and machine-readable security elements to be designed and incorporated into the notes. For that reason, the finished notes may differ somewhat from the basis shown above. The first of the new notes will be issued in 2017 at the earliest.

Norges Bank is exhibiting the competition proposals in Grafill's premises in Oslo, Rosenkrantz gate 21, from 7 to 26 October. The title of the exhibition is "Norway's New Banknote Series: The Sea".