A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 80, State Plates Project

The first license plates were issued in the German state of Baden in 1896. Although New York was the first U.S. state to require automobiles have license plates (1901), these plates were made by individual owners (with the owner's initials) rather than state-issued plates. The first state-issued license plates were issued in Massachusetts, beginning in 1903.

Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to manufacture license plates in 1903.These early Massachusetts license plates were made of iron and covered in a porcelain enamel. The background was colored a cobalt blue and the number was in white. Along the top of the plate, also in white, were the words: "MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER." The size of the plate was not constant; it grew wider as the plate number reached into the tens, hundreds, and thousands.

In 1924, New York and California had each manufactured and issued 1,000,000 license plates. In the United States, license plates are manufactured in correctional facilities which are state or quasi-state owned. Only Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon license plates are manufactured by a privately owned facility but the license plates are issued or distributed by the state government.

The earliest license plates were made of leather, wood and porcelain. The state of Delaware still permits the use of porcelain license plates. Idaho was the first state to manufacture license plates with a graphic –a potato in 1928. Maine was the first state to employ a motto (Vacationland), but by the Depression almost every state was touting something. Pennsylvania manufactured the first custom, vanity or personalized license plate in 1931. As Americans became more prosperous, custom or official vanity license plates became very popular. The increased fees for custom, personalized or vanity official license plates have earned the states hundreds of millions of dollars and a great source of tax revenue for education (colleges), wildlife conservation and other projects.

With the 1970s introduction of pearlescent plate that replaced embossed plates, American plate design deteriorated markedly. It became crude, busy and tasteless.

Massachusetts

Main

Georgia

California

Mississippi

Minnesota

Illinois

Arkansas

Louisiana

Connecticut

Missouri

Delaware

Iowa

Texas

Vermont

New Hampshire

West Virginia

New York

Nebraska

Alabama

Tennessee

North Carolina

South Carolina

Idaho

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Washington

Nevada

Oklahoma

Arizona

Utah

South Dakota

Florida

New Mexico

Louisiana

New Jersey

Michigan

Kansas

Montana

Rhode Island

Indiana

Colorado

Alaska

Hawaii

Kentucky

Wyoming

State Plates Project

Fifty American graphic designers were challenged by the Atlanta-based designer Jonathan Lawrence to “redesign each state’s license plate with an eye toward the restraint and sophistication of yesteryear”. Lawrence thoughtfully has observed that:

“Old license plates have so much character and attention to detail. Our old metal plates combined good design and functionality, and somewhere over the last 50 years, that good design part got lost. Today’s plates don’t have half the character the old ones do.”

This project merits to be included in the History of Graphic Design.