Taran Volodymyr

Volodymyr Taran (born 8 June 1960 in Hrebinky, Kyiv region) is a Ukrainian graphic artist known for banknote and coin design. After working in animation at Kyivnaukfilm, he served in 1993-2002 as chief graphic artist at the NBU Banknote Printing and Minting Works and trained in banknote design at De La Rue Giori in Switzerland. Taran co-authored the designs of the 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 hryvnia banknotes of the 2003-2005 series; his first coin design, Sofiyivka, entered the NBU program in 1996.

In 1996 he founded the ArtTrium group together with Oleksandr and Serhii Kharuk. In NBU coinage his role is primarily the graphic concept: from early Olympic issues, Petro Mohyla, Kyi and architectural series to Fauna in Cultural Monuments of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, the Tomos issues, State Symbols of Ukraine and contemporary wartime themes. UA Coins links him with more than 470 catalog positions; his manner combines banknote precision, poster-like clarity and dense symbolic composition adapted to the small format of a coin.