This is the age of crowdsourcing and social media. So the time is right for creative consultant Richard Smith’s notion that economic change can start at the grass roots. “The only realistic way for a swift economic recovery,” he proposes, “is through a thorough, in-depth rebranding scheme—starting with the redesign of the iconic U.S. dollar.” His Dollar ReDe$ign Project invites anyone to submit an idea at richardsmith.posterous.com, and to date, designers from all over the world have responded enthusiastically.

In a recent piece for The Atlantic, the designer Michael Bierut addressed the state of something on all of our minds these days. Money. Specifically, its design, which Bierut is none too happy about. On the back side of the U.S. dollar, we are faced, says Bierut, with the general effect of “a cake that has been decorated to within an inch of its life.” As for those enormous purple numbers added to deter counterfeiters a few years ago? “A denim patch on a satin dress,” says Bierut.

Charmed by the graphic perfection of Switzerland’s currency and the elephants and rhinos bursting forth from South Africa’s, Bierut thinks it’s time for a currency overhaul in this country. He points to the grassroots efforts of creative consultant Richard Smith, whose recent Dollar ReDe$ign project invited anyone to submit an idea. "The only realistic way for a swift economic recovery," Smith proposes, "is through a thorough, in-depth rebranding scheme — starting with the redesign of the iconic U.S. dollar."