The New Passport Design Is Fugly

By April 18, 2007

The new passport design for the “e-Passport” is fugly. Each page is filled with various patriotic type images concluding with a weird image of space. We declare it to be hideous, and we are the arbiters of good taste. —MEGHANN MARCO

Design of the New US e-Passport [Department of State via Kottke]

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Comments

  1. tubgnome says:
    April 30, 2007 at 2:21 pm

    Wow. I’m really upset. I live abroad, and my passport is my only valid form of government- issued ID. My driver’s license is foreign and doesn’t count as ID here. So I’m going to be stuck showing my passport with this gigantic American flag motif to every bank, merchant, delivery guy and bouncer around??!!! Great. That’s an invitation to please target me for anti-American insults and violence.

    At a time when Americans are being told keep a low profile abroad, the new design makes no sense at all. I’m crossing my fingers they at least get rid of the huge hideous flag before my current passport expires.

  2. haiku says:
    May 1, 2007 at 7:41 pm


    I read somewhere that how ornate a country’s stamps and currency are are inversely correlated with its importance.

    If the same holds for passports we are in serious trouble.

    This is just really, really embarrassing. To identify its citizens, the government of the most powerful country in the world issues … a travel brochure?

    Guess not only the top political and legal jobs are being handed out on the basis of ideology and party loyalty. Is there a Pat Robertson design school out there too?

  3. lurch65 says:
    October 20, 2007 at 9:15 am

    Okay, so it’s a hit in Southeast Asia. What if I’m travelling in the first world? @mkmead:

  4. bashar82 says:
    April 4, 2009 at 7:33 am

    I applied for a new passport a few years ago when epassports were first issued. Though paid the security fee (which I presume was used to cover the cost of the biometric passport) I was issued an old one.

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