by André Vancell, Lead Designer – Note Printing Australia
”Northabout” was the nominated theme that directed the creative story telling for the new Australian R series Passport Travel Documents. The theme takes us on a journey heading north from the Nation’s capital and makes its way around the country, finishing at Victoria’s Hanging Rock. The journey celebrates the diverse landscapes and Australia’s natural beauty through full colour photography, new materials, and technology.
We aimed to navigate our audience through the document, starting from the inside cover through to the ’end page‘, with an aerial view of the Australian coastline as seen when entering or leaving Country and the intervening visa pages portraying stunning natural locations. The covert narrative of the book was developed to connect with the theme and give a unique personality to the book and a cohesive storyline that people can relate to and engage with to aid in their ability to authenticate the product.
Centre spread featuring the continuous line, stitching, paper fibres and planchettes.
Selecting seventeen locations meant that extensive research of the Australian continent had to be undertaken to define the diversity of landscapes, and importantly the representation of all States and Territories. Throughout the research stage of the Design Process, we started developing the story, building sensitivities, and exploring the fine details that would convey a rich visual narrative.
The bond that emerged from this process connected the Design team with Country and elevated the unique personality of each location through lighting conditions, textures, weather patterns, terrains, flora and fauna. Over time the accumulation of details and observations, together with the innate appreciation in the contrasting, yet equally vibrant, rhythms of day and night in the Australian landscape, set the design approach to depict each scene at opposing moments in this daily cycle.
To complement this approach, we took full advantage of the substrate’s impregnated fibres and strategically distributed multi-coloured StarLites™ to interact with the night sky, which added to the richness of the scenes. To give grounding and an experience of navigation to the locations, a common and fixed horizon line was employed, enabling the viewer to explore Country from a common perspective whilst flipping through the pages of the book.
Similarly, under ultraviolet light, green and gold pathways meander through Country, propelling us along the scenic journey towards the end of the book. Liberated from all conformity and constraints of digital software, these hand-drawn lines reveal the natural contours of the land whilst referencing the larger continuity of connectiveness between the individual scenes. On each visa page spread, a marker on the Australian map defines the position and the page number illuminates above the horizon line.
Hand-drawn line work influenced by the natural contours of Country.
The representation of First Nation Peoples has always been an important inclusion in previous Australian Passport Series. This time was no different. We borrowed the ‘Yumari’ painting from previous series and represented it via a watermark feature in the visa page paper – metaphorically representing the fabric of country, whilst physically serving as the backdrop for each of the 17 locations.
Finally, the earthy pigments of the ‘Yumari’ artwork, inspired the colour choice of the individual plies of the stitching thread to bind this story together. Under ultraviolet light these threads illuminate to invoke the colours of the Australian Aboriginal Flag.
Earthy-coloured threads from ‘Yumari’ switch to the colours of the Australian Aboriginal flag.
'Possum and Wallaby Dreaming' mosaic in offset interacting with the polycarbonate features under ultraviolet light.
Represented in the background offset pattern of the data page and the Important Information page at the back of the passport, is ‘Possum and Wallaby Dreaming’ (1985), the mosaic pavement design created by Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara that is the centrepiece of the Forecourt of Australia’s Parliament House. The layered polycarbonate data page, with its unique coloured core switching from blue to red under ultraviolet light, further adorned the narrative with half-depth windows and edge reveals enhancing the product’s security.
Each visa double page spread has a complementary covert design that is revealed under UV light.
When all lights are off, and the UV lights are on, this remarkable passport exposes the observer to a rich ensemble of Australia’s topographical beauty and dreamlike nightscapes familiar to all Australians. The interaction of the narrative with new materials and technology epitomises the product’s functionality to service the security requirements of tomorrow.