5 ms·

State Plates Project

14 points by luke2m 5y ago

dmcginty 5y ago
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.
throwaway946513 5y ago
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.
djbeadle 5y ago
I can't stop thinking about the design for Indiana.
- mikestew 5y ago
  Why so? It’s just a clipped version of the state flag: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Indiana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Indiana
- binarynate 5y ago
  It's so much nicer than the hideous default plates we have here in Indy. The "Environment" plate isn't bad, though: https://i2.wp.com/acreslandtrust.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/09/01160822/Copy-of-IMG_4251-1024x768.jpg https://i2.wp.com/acreslandtrust.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/09/01...
blendergeek 5y ago
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.
Aloha 5y ago
Some of these are significantly less readable than the existing plate designs, specifically at a distance.
- bussierem 5y ago
  Maryland isn't even readable this close. Who decided to vomit typography onto a license plate?
  - sb057 5y ago
    It's a play on their flag design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Maryland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Maryland
  - Aloha 5y ago
    See texas, its worse.
    - mbreese 5y ago
      I can still read the Texas plate. Even knowing the default plate number is MD plus the year of joining the US doesn’t help to be able to read the Maryland plate. I’m not even sure why there is the faux-3D look anyway.
  - eliaspro 5y ago
    I believe fancy typography has no place on a license plate. Germany designed the FE-Schrift especially for license plates which is hard to forge/easily (machine-) readable. Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444760
- cpfohl 5y ago
  Yeah, Mass is illegible _not_ at a distance...
keyle 5y ago
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.
jpobst 5y ago
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-new-license-plate-design-picked-by-tennesseans.html https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2021/10/5/gov--lee-unveils-... It even has the ~same "TN1796" example text.
- silisili 5y ago
  TN is one of the few plates I like. The green, the font...perfect for what it is. The new one looks like some government plate.
- spoonjim 5y ago
  The 1796 is likely because that's when Tennessee was admitted to the United States.
scottlamb 5y ago
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?
- mbreese 5y ago
  I’d love to see these with the current “default” plate shown as a comparison. Some of the designs are nice, but many are just totally impractical from a readability point of view. The comparison between the plates would probably drive this home.
teeray 5y ago
It’s a crime to remove The Old Man of the Mountain from New Hampshire’s plate.
vinay427 5y ago
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.
silisili 5y ago
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.
- mcphage 5y ago
  Eh, I don’t care for NY—there’s a lot more in this state than a single city.
Mountain_Skies 5y ago
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).
- luke2m 5y ago
  Ohio recently changed from numbers stickers for the 88 counties (which some, but not most people knew), to the actual county written on the plate. THe previous way was better imo. The purpose is for different emissions rules iirc.
lacker 5y ago
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_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
aplc0r 5y ago
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.
losalamosal 5y ago
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.

14 points by luke2m 5y ago

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.

throwaway946513 5y ago

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.

djbeadle 5y ago

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

mikestew 5y ago
Why so? It’s just a clipped version of the state flag: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Indiana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Indiana
binarynate 5y ago
It's so much nicer than the hideous default plates we have here in Indy. The "Environment" plate isn't bad, though: https://i2.wp.com/acreslandtrust.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/09/01160822/Copy-of-IMG_4251-1024x768.jpg https://i2.wp.com/acreslandtrust.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/09/01...

blendergeek 5y ago

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.

Aloha 5y ago

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

bussierem 5y ago
Maryland isn't even readable this close. Who decided to vomit typography onto a license plate?
- sb057 5y ago
  It's a play on their flag design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Maryland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Maryland
- Aloha 5y ago
  See texas, its worse.
  - mbreese 5y ago
    I can still read the Texas plate. Even knowing the default plate number is MD plus the year of joining the US doesn’t help to be able to read the Maryland plate. I’m not even sure why there is the faux-3D look anyway.
- eliaspro 5y ago
  I believe fancy typography has no place on a license plate. Germany designed the FE-Schrift especially for license plates which is hard to forge/easily (machine-) readable. Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444760
cpfohl 5y ago
Yeah, Mass is illegible _not_ at a distance...

keyle 5y ago

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.

jpobst 5y ago

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-new-license-plate-design-picked-by-tennesseans.html https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2021/10/5/gov--lee-unveils-... It even has the ~same "TN1796" example text.

silisili 5y ago
TN is one of the few plates I like. The green, the font...perfect for what it is. The new one looks like some government plate.
spoonjim 5y ago
The 1796 is likely because that's when Tennessee was admitted to the United States.

scottlamb 5y ago

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?

mbreese 5y ago
I’d love to see these with the current “default” plate shown as a comparison. Some of the designs are nice, but many are just totally impractical from a readability point of view. The comparison between the plates would probably drive this home.

teeray 5y ago

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

vinay427 5y ago

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.

silisili 5y ago

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.

mcphage 5y ago
Eh, I don’t care for NY—there’s a lot more in this state than a single city.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago

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).

luke2m 5y ago
Ohio recently changed from numbers stickers for the 88 counties (which some, but not most people knew), to the actual county written on the plate. THe previous way was better imo. The purpose is for different emissions rules iirc.

lacker 5y ago

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

aplc0r 5y ago

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.

losalamosal 5y ago

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.