New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party is a prominent centre-left political party, founded in 1916, that has played a significant role in shaping New Zealand's political landscape. Labour has been one of the two dominant political forces in New Zealand, sharing this status with the National Party. Labour's political agenda emphasizes social justice, equal opportunity, and accessible public services, including education and healthcare. The party has experienced various periods of governance, with notable leadership from figures like Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern. Chris Hipkins has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2023.

From April 2024 to April 2025, I worked as a fixed-term designer for both Parliamentary Service (Labour Leader's Office) and at the New Zealand Labour Party. The work spanned digital, print, social, merchandise and large-scale environmental design, often under tight timeframes and intense public scrutiny. I was involved in everything from rapid-response political graphics to long-running national campaigns, events, fundraising merchandise and day-to-day support for MPs around the country. In my first eight months alone I delivered over 300 projects and more than 1,100 design assets, and no two days were ever the same.

A big part of my role was helping evolve Labour's digital branding. With campaign art directions, I developed a visual throughline that kept Labour's ownership of red front and centre while expanding the palette with warmer purples and oranges to give the system flexibility and range. My goal was to modernise their templates, create more consistency across platforms, and create a visual language that could stretch from anger and protest to optimism and celebration.

Campaign work included responses to the 2024 Budget, environmental protection (protesting the Fast Track Approvals Bill), school lunch programme and bus route cuts, and opposition to the Government's Treaty Principles Bill (including supporting the historic Hīkoi mō te Tiriti in November 2024, attended by over 40,000 people). Alongside this, for the Labour Party I designed multiple fundraising items including tea towels, t-shirts, mugs and stickers, many of which sold out quickly and some which were worn and championed by MPs and supporters around the country. I also restored historic Labour campaign artwork dating back to the 1930s for permanent office displays. It was a remarkable, wonderful year of my life, and these images represent a small snapshot of my time at Parliament.