Take Five… Design’s best passport designs
One category. Every two weeks. Five of the world’s most charismatic designs.
This week, we have mostly been disapproving of the new UK passport design. We have found it to be sexist, as well as (gasp) badly designed. It looks like the UK Passport Office fed every piece of British history, culture and random visual ephemera into Ada Lovelace’s prototypical computer and it vomited the contents all over the pages of the new passport.
Passports have a serious job to do. They see the world’s citizens across borders and they must foil legions of fraudsters in the process. But that doesn’t mean they have to be badly designed, for crying out loud!
Here are 5 countries that combine the weighty task of staying ahead of the crims with some visual levity, creativity and above all, style.
Canada
Is it just me or is Canada really cool right now? First Justin Trudeau, now this – a passport that reveals secret graphics when held under UV light. A must have accessory at every Canadian nightclub.
Norway
Take a look at your own passport. Chances are, it’s either burgundy, red or blue and has an ornate, trad-looking crest placed symmetrically on the front cover. Now look at Norway’s stylish little numbers, available in a range of colours, just like a fashion brand’s seasonal accessories. The pages are clean, simple, and confident (with UV effects for good measure). Oh, the envy. Write to your MP to demand a redesign of your country’s doubtless feeble equivalent.
Japan
Like so much Japanese design, the national passport has a quiet sense of elegance. The motif in the centre is the imperial chrysanthemum crest. “Keep it simple” is an undervalued maxim in this category, and this design proves its worth.
Switzerland
With bold simplicity, clarity and a radical (!) off-centre composition, the Swiss passport has a Scandi-cool cover that you’d be proud to flash at any opportunity. If there’s one piece of design that travels, it’s a passport. With this one, the Swiss are telling the world something about how they value design.
Finland
How long have we waited for a flipbook walking elk! What a stroke of analogue genius. This handsome Scandinavian antelope ambles through the pages of this passport and through the nations of the world (or at least, their stamps). Anything that elicits a smile in an immigration queue can’t be a bad thing.