His work appears on bread bags, wine bottles, T-shirts - the list goes on.
Dick Frizzell enjoys being unpredictable not to mention the challenge of creating images for the unexpected, the more unusual the better.
But it was the quest to slow down and take another look at the New Zealand countryside that inspired his latest show ''Up the Road''''I was also trying to calm things down a bit.''
Now based in Auckland, he came up with the idea of doing small landscapes where he could concentrate on the one motif of the road.
''It's turned out to be a lot of fun. Interesting little series of works. I can't see it stopping.
''You have to spend a fair bit of time on the road collecting images.''
He had also turned to his vast library of scrapbooks of images he had collected over the years only to discover he had been intuitively gathering images around roads.
''There is something about them that attracts me. Like the track to the beach, or the farm track or the bit in vineyard or the highway itself darting around the corner.''
An example of this was an old image of a barn on the Clinton to Gore highway.
''I've had the photograph on my desk in my special pile for years wondering where, when or how I'd get around to it. I pulled that out of the pile. It's a cracker that one.''
The exhibition at the Milford Gallery was shown in Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Auckland, and as each work sold Frizzell completed another one to fill the gap.
''It's got me back on the road and back into the rhythm of going out to find these.
''I can drive half a day and only find one. You are also going down roads less travelled as well, which is fun.''
Many of the images were supposed to be archetypes, ''if I get it right,'' he said.
''They're not about, say, a Central North Island road, it's about everyone recognising it as a New Zealand road.''
His art was easily applied to products whatever they might be and he was working on a Dick Frizzell line - this time it was manchester, a word he ''loved''.
''I am a designer as well. My work does apply well. I love the challenge and the latest challenge was manchester - it made me laugh.''
Those sort of challenges just made him want to go home and see if he could do it.
''It's the way the mind works and it keeps me going.''
Just as diving into the New Zealand flag debate did. Frizzell was never one to shy away from controversy.
''I had a good go. I thought my southern cross with two bars was a graceful solution but it didn't make the cut.''
So instead he got right behind the alternative ''red peak'' flag design but he was not hopeful there would be any change.
''I think the whole thing is dying a death. It's all over for another 10 years. What a mess. An unmitigated disaster. People have just backed off.''
It would be interesting to see if ''red peak'' became the New Zealand flag by default if it continued to get traction and did not go away.
''It's the way it used to happen.''
