WHAT ARE THE AESTHETICS FOR?
EARLY PASSPORTS
The oldest passport still in existence was issued on 18 June 1641 which was signed by England's King Charles I.
The first modern-style British passports were available in 1915. They included a photograph and signature and consisted of a single piece of paper that folded out and sat between cardboard covers.
THE MODERN PASSPORT DESIGN
In antique passport photos, people were seen posing in their gardens or at the seaside, with newspapers and musical instruments. (Source: BBC)
In 1920, several standards were adopted by the League of Nations. Among its standards were pagination, use of at least 2 languages and a cover bearing the nation's name at the top, its coat of arms in the centre and the word "Passport' at the bottom.
THE PASSPORT PALLETTE
What do the colours mean?
Most of the world's passports are three colours, red, blue or green. It's generally accepted that blue passports are favoured by New World countries, red refers to a Communist past or present and green often indicates Islamic nations.
A LOCAL TOUCH
Within their covers, passports try to convey more of a local representation with noteworthy citizens, and natural wonders embedded in their pages. Australian passports carry holographic-styled images showing kangaroos that appear to be floating or sinking from different viewing angles.
ELABORATE PAGES TO AVOID FORGERY
The design features of the modern passport are also for security like the biometric chip, which began to be added globally, because of which a new symbol appeared on the jacket of any passport which had one.
The Lotus symbol on Indian passports was added as part of the enhanced security features.
HIDDEN REPRESENTATION
On Canadian passports, holographic images are embossed in the thin-film laminate. Due to the presence of "Optically variable ink, it changes colour under different lighting.
Similarly, the pages of Norwegian passports reveal the Northern lights when put under UV light.
SOME NOTEWORTHY EXAMPLES
The UK's inner pages include line drawings of several famous artists and Shakespeare's head as a watermark on each page.
Created by Hokusai, Japan's new passport features "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' series printed onto the pages as an anti-forgery measure.
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