Christmas is coming early

NZ Post’s Christmas 2022 stamps were issued a month earlier than usual with the help of designer and illustrator Donna McKenna. Nearly 20 years on from her first foray into stamp design, this is the 11th New Zealand stamp issue she has created.

Tell us about your history of designing stamps for NZ Post. I have designed 11 stamp issues for NZ Post. My first issue was WWF for Nature in 1993. For the launch of the stamp I had a giant weta from the zoo crawling on my arm. I was young and brave then. Three of my designs have been photographic, such as Scenic Reflections in 2000, but most are illustrated, featuring everything from animals at a zoo to children. What was your approach to the Christmas 2022 stamp designs? My approach for Christmas 2022 was first to follow the requirements of the brief using my years of design experience and styles. I needed to fit the elements of each stamp in a visual hierarchical order, all while holding a unified and pleasing look across the set. The overall task was to present Christmas stamps that are uniquely New Zealand’s.

I began by mulling over the brief and making rough basic concept sketches. I wanted to convey simple, suitable, symbolic decorations of our Christmas in traditional silver, that many people would recognise. Working at four times the size I developed the central silver symbol, tying it in with a nostalgic colour selection to lift Aotearoa New Zealand’s very own flora to the fore. The digital illustration outlines subtly signify stained glass. Finally, handlettering was styled to feel both festive and authentic. No holly sprigs in sight. What else do you design and what do you enjoy doing the most?

I design a range of work, from book illustrations to calligraphy, from painting on shovels to painting on canvas. Health, education and conservation have been my most predominant work areas. It’s difficult to decide which I like doing the most because they’re all pretty neat. My professional career spans five decades now - that’s a lot of deadlines. But stamp designing easily ticks all the boxes as far as design challenge and excellent client communication go, and has the bonus of finishing with a functional miniature collectable. “It’s difficult to decide which [art medium] I like doing the most because they’re all pretty neat.”

How would you spend an ideal Christmas day? Do you have any family Christmas traditions? An ideal Christmas Day is how I already spend it. A lot of effort goes into the food preparation for the family midday Christmas feast, held either indoors or out in the bright summer sun. Family traditions are putting on display the colourful Christmas decorations that have been stashed away and all the family being together on the big day, lots of music, a wee gift for each other and remembering those who are no longer with us to enjoy Christmas. That’s where the dovelike kererū stamp comes in. What do you think are the most defining characteristics of a New Zealand Christmas?

Family time in the warmth of our Southern Hemisphere summer and the promise of more sunshine in the New Year. This year will be unique, watching the King’s first traditional Christmas message. If you could design a stamp issue on any topic, what would it be and why? I’d choose the human relationship with nature. It could depict a child planting a small tree, with the second stamp of the same person as a teenager nurturing the larger tree- perhaps watering - and the third stamp featuring a mature tree offering shade to the now elderly adult who rests on a bench. I like the symbolic idea that it’s a two-way system – we protect nature and then nature protects us.