Overview
Earl Hingston participated in a nation-wide competition to design new postage stamps in the late 1960s. The New Zealand Post Office selected him as one of ten finalists and gave him three themes for his entries: “butterflies”, “shells” and a “royal” stamp.
In this instance, none of Earl’s designs were chosen for publication. He believes his “royal” design in particular might have been seen as too contemporary, where perhaps a more formal design would have been seen as more appropriate.
Later Earl was more successful as the designer of the iconic New Zealand Post Office logo (circa 1975). Variations of this logo, an envelope which suggested the letters NZ, were used by New Zealand Post until 2021.