New license plate design coming in 2018 (home, high school, codes)

[fezzador]

New license plate design coming for IA in 2018, and people can vote for the winner

New license plate design coming for Iowa | The Gazette

Something tells me that the options (which should be unveiled in the coming weeks) will all be "safe" and "unsexy" (i.e. simple designs with minimal amount of colors).

If anything, I hope they get rid of those tacky county markers on the bottom of the plate. Nothing wrong with using numeric "county codes".

[Meemur]

I agree! Numeric country codes are fine.

I'm okay with "unsexy" colors. I had gold and maroon one time, and that wasn't even in Iowa. I'm fine with black or blue letters on a white or off-white background.

[fezzador]

Here was an entry that was supposed to be in the running, but was already pulled:



Not a bad design, except that the county marker should go away. That, and it seems almost too "busy". They could have just used the RAGBRAI/windfarm motif to fill the state outline; heck, they could use it to fill the entire plate. It's certainly very unique to Iowa. While we all know the skyline is DSM's, it's still very generic-looking to out-of-staters, and Iowa is most certainly not the only state heavily invested in agriculture.

[Iowegian4]

Let's take the plate design above, use the neutral background color for the entire plate. The alpha numeric numbers would be in Black. Instead of a small annual sticker for the right corner, there would instead be a sticker that would go the entire width of the plate that would show IOWA and the expiration year. The plate wide sticker would be about two and a half inches tall and new interesting graphic designs could be selected.

Also I'd bring back the county code. They would be the center two numbers. this would leave room for two characters to the left of the county numbers and 2 characters to the right. Each character would range from a to z, except I and O, then 1 through 0. This wwould provide more than enough combos (34 x 34 x 34 x 34)

[fezzador]

I was thinking that maybe a design based off the American Gothic could work, but I also think Iowa is trying to shed its rural image and this would only enhance the stereotype. But if done well, it could make for an attractive plate design.

I'm really thinking a RAGBRAI-based design would be the best of both worlds as it'd be neither strongly urban nor rural. It's something that is well-known to locals, and pique the curiosity of those who aren't from the area.

And maybe brand it as "heavenly Iowa" or "Is this heaven?" - sort of as a middle-finger to coastal snobs who view Iowa as 'flyover land'. Those who call Iowa home tend to be mighty proud of it. It's a fine state, why not butter it up a bit?

[paiste13]

how do you know that was an option? do you have links to more options?

[fezzador]

It was never an option, it was created by someone outside of the IDOT. It was popular enough to get some publicity, but it was never seriously in the running.

That said, here are the 3 finalists:

http://www.kcci.com/article/iowa-dot...signs/11664401


Of the 3, I like the bottom one the best, but they all still have that stupid county name thing on the bottom. Someone needs to write to the IDOT and bring back the county codes.

Unfortunately it's probably like Daylight Savings - it may have served a purpose at one time, but most people would be happy to see it go, but it's likely not going away anytime soon.

[Dewey59]

Great variety among the 3 designs.... NOT! Wow, a high school graphics arts student could have done better than this.

[fezzador]

My expectations weren't very high to begin with, but even then the choices are underwhelming. The farmland motif is the least mediocre IMHO, but even that one leaves a lot to be desired.

[duster1979]

"I want to move to/visit/locate my company in [random state] because their license plates are so attractive!" said nobody ever.

I vote for keeping the current plate and save the costs involved with changing. Unless going back to solid blue with white letters would be cheaper yet.