For Labour’s 2024 fundraising merchandise, a tea towel “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted Labour” was already designed and ready for release, and I was asked to create products to be sold alongside it. I sketched many ideas and brainstormed them with the wider team before the final four additional designs were chosen. Two were more Labour focused. The other two concepts were centred around and approved by Chris Hipkins.
After I created slogan-based designs for the products (“Bring Back Chippy”, aiming to evoke nostalgia for the 1980s slogan “Bring Back Buck”, and “Let’s Make History - Labour Back in Government ‘26” as it would be the first time in history if National lost a re-election after one term), I explored some designs built around the New Zealand Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins. Two ideas were chosen for production: "Chippy Cola" and "Hot Fresh Chippy".
"Hot Fresh Chippy" was a riff on his famous love of sausage rolls and pies alongside a pun on his nickname. The idea behind the design was to evoke nostalgic Kiwiana, such as Frosty Boy and The Longest Drink in Town. As the tea towels were going to be screenprinted, the biggest challenge was wanting to use as few colours as possible. The final design uses just four Pantone inks: red, orange, yellow and peach.
The final merchandise line - including tea towels, mugs and t-shirts - went on sale in August 2024. "Hot Fresh Chippy" and "Chippy Cola" were exclusive to a limited edition tea towel bundles. Only 200 packs were produced and they quickly sold out.
The response from Labour Party members and the public was fantastic: the nostalgic angle was a big hit, the towels were vividly colourful, and there was appreciation for doing something so different to Labour's usual merchandise lines. "Hot Fresh Chippy" was a great project to work on and I love the final result.
