
Norway’s new passport – already a design classic? - hiphopyo
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/nov/17/norway-new-passport-design
======
Inconel
Along the same lines as this new passport here are some cool design proposals
from Metric[1] and Snohetta[2] for Norway's new banknotes.

And a couple of concepts from US based designers[3][4] for US currency
designs.

[1][http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-
bank](http://www.metricdesign.no/work/norges-bank)

[2][http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-
norway3...](http://snohetta.com/projects/200-design-proposal-for-
norway39s-new-banknotes)

[3][http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-
proposal](http://www.travispurrington.com/2014-usd-proposal)

[4][http://tyznik.com/currency/](http://tyznik.com/currency/)

Edit: I thought Travis Purrington was US based but he is actually Zurich
based.

~~~
the_duke
The metric designs look A LOT like the Euro notes.

~~~
iagooar
And the new Swiss Francs, which I find the most beautifully designed notes I
have ever seen. Some of the following notes are not out yet, Switzerland has
been replacing the old notes slowly for the last couple of years.

I wasn't able to find an image of all the notes, here is the new 50 franc
note:

[http://www.snb.ch/n/mmr/picture/3a29e64cf82f471d00257f8d0021...](http://www.snb.ch/n/mmr/picture/3a29e64cf82f471d00257f8d0021f136/source/SNB_9S_BN50_pack_017_web.jpg)

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grkvlt
Not as cool as Finland, though. Their passport design features a moose on each
page, which doubles as a flip-book animation of it walking! See
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI)

~~~
grkvlt
I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting
under UV light [0] and this Hungarian EUR 20 note is inspired, with UV light
showing the skeletal structure of the pictured bird [1] but sadly its just a
mock-up from a final-year project by a design student...

[0] [http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP](http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP) [1]
[http://www.designboom.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/barbara...](http://www.designboom.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/barbara-bernat-hungarian-paper-money-
designboom-14.jpg)

~~~
masklinn
> I also like the new Canadian passport pages, which have clever highlighting
> under UV light

The article notes that under UV light the pages of the new/future norwegian
passport switch from day view to "northern lights" night view. The first two
pictures in TFA are the same page viewed under normal light and UV.

------
gumby
Interesting that the pass just has Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) and English
-- no French. Is French no longer the Lingua Franka? My kid's German passport
still has German / English / French and my Australian one is still English /
French.

I've used French in some weird remote corners of the world where English
didn't work.

~~~
chmars
French hasn't been the been the modern lingua franca for some time, it's
obviously English (well, actually many variants of English) now.

The ICAO still recommends to issue passports in English and French _or_ in the
national language plus English or French although using the national
language(s) plus English and French is still common in Europe.

European Union passports even use all official EU languages as far as I know
(I cannot check right now).

~~~
Symbiote
EU passports use all the languages, but only via a page with translations for
each field.

My British one has English and French on the data page, and a number to look
up the translation.

[http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568...](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48863000/jpg/_48863568_passportbiographicpage.jpg)

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lb1lf
The new passports will not be issued until April 2018.

I just realised I'll end up with one of the first ones - my current spare
passport expires on March 31st, 2018.

~~~
uiri
More likely you'll end up with one of the last ones. Generally it is good to
keep at least 6 months of validity on your passport if you plan on using it.

Depending on the country, it might be more difficult to renew it after it has
expired than shortly before.

~~~
HappyTypist
It really depends on the country. The US is perfectly fine with your passport
up until the date of expiry, so is Canada, so is many EU countries.

~~~
ddeck
Be sure to check before traveling.

All of the 26 European countries comprising the Schengen area require that
U.S. passports are valid for at least 90 days beyond the traveler’s intended
date of departure and many assume travellers will stay 3 months, thus
requiring 6 month validity.

[https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm](https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/231319.htm)

------
kwhitefoot
This story is from 2014. And also the ID card is just a proposal, I've been
living here for over thirty years and I have never heard of a Norwegian having
an ID card.

------
zoom6628
All cred to Norway for doing their part to make a passport something usable
and something a citizen can show with pride. However not a patch on current
New Zealand passport design. Everywhere i take mine out for use i get comments
about how cool and yet elegant it looks - inside and out.

~~~
helloworld
Your comment made me curious about the design of New Zealand passports, which
eventually led me to this atlas of passport covers:

[https://www.passportindex.org/](https://www.passportindex.org/)

Here's New Zealand's distinctive design:

[https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png](https://www.passportindex.org/countries/nz.png)

But I prefer the elegant minimalism from Switzerland:

[https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png](https://www.passportindex.org/countries/ch.png)

De gustibus non est disputandum. :-)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Beautiful passports make me wish I could collect citizenships.

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zaatar
What is the difference between an "immigrant passport" and a "standard
passport" ? Are naturalized citizens of Norway not equal to natural citizens
of Norway?

~~~
h4nkoslo
They are for legal residents without the ability to get proper documents from
their home countries. My guess is primarily "refugees" that haven't gone
through the full citizenship process.

[https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-
and-...](https://www.udi.no/en/want-to-apply/immigrants-passport-and-travel-
document/)

~~~
zaatar
Got it, thanks, in hindsight, I should have googled it myself. I've never seen
a refugee travel document / refugee passport be called an "immigrant passport"
before, but that's cool, and more importantly, it's great to see Norway hasn't
created a "second class citizen" category, and that all citizens are truly
equal, at least from a Passport/Documentation perspective.

------
seanmcdirmid
These are so cool! How do I get one?

American passports are so drab in comparison. Another nice passport design is
Swiss, but that shouldn't be surprising.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
In my case? I accidentally fell in love with a Norwegian some years back. If I
have my date and time stuff correct, I should be able to apply to get one in
late summer/early autumn.

Of course, the path to that stuff also includes language learning and civics
and all that stuff too.

------
carlob
(2014)

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cantrevealname
I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very
rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries
in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you
could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could
be replaced by nothing.

Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used:

(1) You're entering your home country with your passport. Pretty much at every
secure border crossing, they're going to use your passport number to pull up
absolutely every bit of info that appears in your passport, including your
photo, plus a lot more info from the home country's computers. The passport
serves at most as a "something you have" security token. They already have
your photo, so the only case where the physical passport helps is avoiding
impersonation by someone closely resembling you.

(2) You're traveling to a foreign country that needs a visa. In that case, you
will have submitted a ton of information, including your photo, to the foreign
country in advance to get the visa. When you arrive at the foreign country,
it's just like case (1) above.

(3) You're traveling to a foreign country that doesn't need a visa from
citizens of your home country. In this case, the proof you need is that you
are a citizen of that country. It is likely that the two countries have
exchanged a mass of information to make the visa-free travel possible, or they
can share the info about visitors in real time as they arrive.

It's really the edge cases that the physical passport helps. Like obscure
border crossings where they don't have an electronic feed, or very third-world
countries, or as a recognizable document to show to hotels/banks/airlines
within a foreign country.

By the way, I'm not saying that this is a good development. In fact, it's a
terrible loss of privacy and furthering of worldwide surveillance. But it
seems to be the trend, like the elimination of cash.

~~~
kweks
You're totally right, the paper passport could be considered a strange object
in a very electronic world.

However, in my experience, truly electronically equipped borders are the edge
case. The countries that take e-passports without any agent interaction are
fee and far between, and typically only service citizens of that country.

Perhaps you're fortunate enough to travel in a selection of bleeding edge
countries, via plane. Many, many people use land borders, and most land
borders don't have electronic systems.

For an electronic system to work, you'd need 100% coverage of every border, or
the system breaks - and that's hard to pull off.

The flip side is that there are security flaws with partial electronic
systems. My country passed a law against travel to Iraq / Afghanistan for
citizens, and yet, because they have 100% electronic border control for
citizens, (and Iraq / Afghanistan don't..) - my passport has never been
checked, despite having 'illegal' visas plain to see.

~~~
marcoperaza
> _For an electronic system to work, you 'd need 100% coverage of every
> border, or the system breaks - and that's hard to pull off._

And therein lies the true absurdity of it. All travel stops if the internet
goes down?

~~~
tajen
If we truely have high-level terrorists crossing borders, then yes, every
person's identity should be checked against national police files and thus,
when Internet is down, every decision should be suspended, if we want to be
consistent.

Obviously I say "if" because those who actually want to deceive the system
walk through borders by foot (taking advantage of the terrain), and register
as migrants (under no less than 14 identities for one person - that's what
happened for the last terrorist in Europe). Heightened passport security rules
are great, but they mostly catch citizen who thought they were law-abiding,
while it's much, much harder to deal with real criminality.

~~~
marcoperaza
I'm not talking about a momentary outage. I'm talking about, e.g., citizens
trying to return home after a crippling cyber attack that leaves America
offline.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
It's a distinctive, minimalist design, for sure. Hopefully it's still as
usable as before. Though ICAO passport specifications mean designers probably
aren't given enough rope to hang themselves.

------
moomin
I find it hilarious that the related articles includes this:
[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-
design...](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-
blog/2015/nov/05/design-blunders-of-the-new-uk-passport-a-very-british-mess) ,
which basically details how the UK government has managed to make an utter
mess of the same exact design space.

~~~
smcl
We seem to have a knack for including portrait drawings that look like a bad
DeviantArt fan-art. That Shakespeare picture is pretty goofy, and the
Clydesdale Bank 20 GBP note has a particularly awful depiction of Robert The
Bruce, for example:
[http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestne...](http://www.britishnotes.co.uk/news_and_info/scottishlatestnews/20front.jpg)

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mrmondo
That is truly wonderful design, I'm genuinely drawn to it and quite envious,
until now I thought the current New Zealand passport was quite pleasant -
[http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-
migh...](http://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/kiwi-traveller/84012074/the-mighty-new-
zealand-passport-everything-you-need-to-know)

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thewhitetulip
If I am not wrong, Chinese passports are also similar beautiful design and
different pages show different things under UV light.

~~~
masklinn
The canadian passport has apparently used UV-reactive ink since at least 2003:
[http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP](http://imgur.com/gallery/3u8xP) contrasts the
"old" canadian passport's UV pages to the "new" one's, the new one
(biometric/ePassport) was introduced in 2013, the previous one was introduced
in 2003.

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CalRobert
A thread relevant to this discussion - why do we require passports?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12621909)

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microcolonel
I have to say, when I got my U.S. passport I found it striking. My Canadian
passport is pretty bland even though it has the same format (backdrop image
and a quote).

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drxerious
I like the design, although they do remind me a bit of the little Kate Spade
notebooks and accessories you find at upmarket department stores..

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charlesdm
I seriously love the design of this passport. Well done to the company that
designed those.

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masklinn
Needs a [2014] tag:

> Monday 17 November 2014 15.29 GMT

> Last modified on Monday 17 November 2014 18.40 GMT

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pdog
What does it take to become a citizen of Norway? Asking for a friend.

