Miljenko Licul was a Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

n graphic designer

Graphic designer

A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...

 of Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 descent. He was one of the most prominent graphic designers in independent Slovenia.

Life and work

Licul was born in the Istria

Istria

Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...

n town of Vodnjan

Vodnjan

-Geography:Vodnjan is situated 10 km north of Pula, on elevation of 135 m. It is located at the intersection of the main road Buje - Pula and the regional road Vodnjan - Fažana, as well as on the railroad Divača - Pula.-Demographics:...

, which was then part of the Yugoslav occupation zone of the Julian March

Julian March

The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...

 (now in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

). His parents were Istrian Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

. He moved to Slovenia in his youth and lived and worked there most of his life.

He was a founder of the group Znak, and leader of studios Zodiak and Diptih. For some time, Licul taught typography

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...

 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design

Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana

The Academy of Fine Arts and Design , is a prestigious art academy and institution based in Ljubljana, Slovenia . It is part of the University of Ljubljana....

 in Ljubljana. Licul's work covers a wide spectrum of arts; from designing publications, posters and magazine covers to postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s and calendars.

One of his most prominent career highlights was in 1991, when he won the contest for designing new Slovenian currency, the tolar

Slovenian tolar

The tolar was the currency of Slovenia from 1991 until the introduction of the euro on 1 January 2007. It was subdivided into 100 stotins...

. The banknotes featured portraits of prominent Slovenian personalities, the work of painter Rudi Španzel

Rudi Španzel

Rudi Španzel is a Slovenian painter.-Biography:Rudi Španzel graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. He is one of the few contemporary painters who create on the principle of Renaissance artists, who have insisted on realism and deep symbolism...

. When Slovenia adopted the euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 as the national currency, Licul designed the national side of Slovenian euro coins

Slovenian euro coins

Slovenian euro coins were first issued for circulation on 1 January 2007 and a unique feature is designed for each coin. The design of approximately 230 million Slovenian euro coins was unveiled on 7 October 2005. The designers were Miljenko Licul, Maja Licul and Janez Boljka...

, together with Maja Licul and Janez Boljka. Licul and Boljka designed tolar coins together, as well.

Besides the national currency, Licul also designed several official documents, such as the Slovenian passport

Passport

A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

, identity card and health insurance card. His other works include the designing of a new graphic image for the Slovenian National Gallery.

Awards

For his opus, Licul was awarded several prizes. In 1985 he received the Prešeren Foundation Award for his achievements in graphic design. In 1988 Licul won the Plečnik

Jože Plecnik

Jože Plečnik , was a Slovene architect who practised in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague and Ljubljana.-Biography:...

 Award, the highest award in the field of design, architecture and urban planning in Slovenia. In 2008 he was awarded the Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...

, the highest Slovenian national prize in the field of arts, together with translator Janez Gradišnik

Janez Gradišnik

Janez Gradišnik , was a Slovenian author and translator.-Biography:He was born in Stražišče near Prevalje, present-day Slovenia, in what was then the Duchy of Carinthia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at the University of Ljubljana. In the late 1930s and 1940s, he belonged to the...

. On that particular occasion, it was substantiated that Licul's works were of highest quality and that he was among the authors who renewed the strictly modernistic style of the 1970s, without omitting the historical features.

He died in Ljubljana, Slovenia.