State Plates Project

They "look" good. Really well crafted, although some really questionable, like "I ran out of ideas, let me go crazy here".

But one has to question the UX and the design of these. First of all, readability is primordial. Second, you have to stick it on every car, some back and front. Think of all the colours of cars out there, and they're going to age in the sun etc.

Most people want no plate or a plate that doesn't steal from the design of the car. Black on white or white on black, done.

Save these for your man cave, next to your neon lights above the bar. Man, they'd look good there. As it is, it stays mostly has a designer puff piece, a portfolio piece.

I really don't like license plates having the county on them. Knowing that someone is from a different county can encourage certain undesirable behaviors towards them. In states that use county codes as part of the plate number, this is unavoidable, but for states that write out the county, you should be able to leave it off. One of the reasons I have a specialty design on my vehicle is because it excludes the county (plus the extra money the design costs goes towards wildlife conservation).

Some of these are significantly less readable than the existing plate designs, specifically at a distance.

The design principles just don't make sense for license plates. It really isn't important that a license plate for California highlight the history of California. It's nice to be distinguishable from other states' plates, but that's quite easy to do, just make it a different color scheme.

One thing is very important for license plates. They need to be easy to read. That's all. Big letters and numbers, no weird fonts. The current California plates are pretty well done, much better than these designs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...

I can't comment on most of these. However, as a Mississippi native, I do have to comment on the "Mississippi Plate".

The steamers are known from the river that shares a name with the state. The steamers are not as much a part of the history or culture of the state itself.

The current (or maybe old) license plate references The Blues, I'm glad to see that. But a better secondary would be the Magnolia Flower (which adorned Mississippi's license plates for decades). People all across the USA tend to confuse the State of Mississippi with the river; we don't need that on our license plates.

Some of these look nice. I like the Iowa one more than the current design.

Some look completely impractical. How is the California plate supposed to work when there's a 10-character license plate number on it? Is it supposed to all be crammed into the yellow part on the left? Does the yellow part expand to completely hide the bear, and remove that embossed element? Or does the license plate number spill past the yellow and overlap with the bear illegibly?

As the type of person that has license plates from various places hung up on my wall, I think this is a very cool endeavor, and I’m very excited to see where you go with this. Some of these are huge improvements over the existing plate designs. That being said, at least for the states I’ve lived in:

1. The proposed design for Michigan is much busier than the current default plate, and more importantly is focused on the “wrong” (IMO) thing. The auto industry isn’t as timeless and representative of the state as a license plate should be. Specifically, in the current era in particular, the historical dependence on the industry feels like more of a sore spot to many people, and the existing plate’s focus on nature provides a welcome change from that. Furthermore, the auto industry further excludes the the half of the state that’s outside the metro-Detroit region from the state consciousness, as the auto industry isn’t generally very prominent there.

2. As someone else noted, I’m not sure how the existing numbering scheme would fit on California’s plates. I like the clean and cool design, however, and think this poses a nice change that can definitely inspire a better alternative to the mundane field of white we currently have.

While a lot of these can be difficult to read - I personally as a Missourian like the design of the Missouri plate, it's a lot like the older 2000's plates that were based around the river motif.

Additionally, it is quite easy to read, and the nice 'city registration tag' would be nice to see implemented.

Ironically, TN just announced a new plate that looks very similar to this design (which says it is from 2014).

https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2021/10/5/gov--lee-unveils-...

It even has the ~same "TN1796" example text.

I like the project but must comment on New Mexico. Saguaro are generally associate with Arizona (where they grow in large numbers), not New Mexico (where there are few, if any). I actually think NM’s current yellow/zia plate is a clean/evocative design.

Really love some of these. FL is probably my favorite. And NY is much more pleasant than they use today.

But some are way too simplistic IMO. GA, TN, KY all seem somehow less pleasant, but as a nondesigner, I can't put my finger on why.

The choice of state symbols is really interesting. I like the orange with the silhouette of Florida. I also really like how New Hampshire's license plate depicts the state's iconic gradient fill tool.

As a Minnesotan, I don't really understand the focus on Paul Bunyan in the design. Is that really what we're most known for? Looks like a great design for a craft beer label though.

It’s a crime to remove The Old Man of the Mountain from New Hampshire’s plate.

I can't stop thinking about the design for Indiana.