The New Rhode Island License Plate: A Plea for a Dignified Design – Architecture Critic Morgan
Will Morgan, Architecture Critic
The New Rhode Island License Plate: A Plea for a Dignified Design – Architecture Critic Morgan
License Plates are to Rhode Islanders what football is to Texans or what basketball is to Hoosiers. Watching, obtaining, and showing off the perquisites of auto tag privilege is a sport in the Ocean State. Where else do divorcing couples engage in court fights over an inherited low number plate? What other state has a license plate for a former Senate Majority Leader?
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Just as the Rhode Island State Police has the most distinguished uniforms of any highway patrol in the nation, the state is also blessed by a handsome license plate. Known as the Wave, our current license plate was designed by Rhode Island native, RISD graduate, and internationally famous art director, Tyler Smith.
Now after a quarter of a century, the wave plate is going to be replaced. Governor McKee has proposed a competition, in which Rhode Islanders will submit their own ideas for the new plate. Holding an open design contest is bold and exciting; it is also a recipe for disaster. Instead of a single design guru or a committee of visually literate judges, it appears that the public will vote for a winner from finalists. Cluttered picture scenes with seagulls and sailboats will no doubt overwhelm dignified, timeless schemes.
A license plate is more than just a way to raise revenue and identify automobiles for public safety. A license plate serves as an ambassador for the state. It is a nametag, a statement, and an inescapable advertisement for the state. Designing a post-wave plate is not to be taken lightly, especially as we may live with it until 2045 or so.
One major change in the new plates is that the embossed tags will be retired in favor of digitally flat plates. While the manufacturer (3M) claims that E-Z Pass and other scanners more easily read flat plates, they are decidedly less handsome. Why should E-Z Pass and a corporation dictate this important design decision for Rhode Island?
3M dominates–some would say monopolizes–the license plate coatings market. (Before digital plates, 3M lead the campaign to have all state tags reflectorized; never mind that the reflective surfaces offer no extra appreciable measure of safety.) Since the new unstamped plates allow all manner of pictures, it will be a strong temptation to excessively clutter up these six-by-twelve-inch canvases. Just because overcrowded tags with far too much distracting material are rampant everywhere doesn't mean Rhode Island has to copy them. A plethora of mottos, landscapes, fruit, animals, maps, and symbols make legibility a joke–no wonder the scanners are challenged.
Remember the state's Cooler and Warmer tourism campaign five years ago? That kind of tone-deaf sensibility on the new plate could make us a laughing stock. For example, the cartoonish SAVE WILDLIFE plate suggests that squirrels, deer, and raccoons are endangered species. We need to resist the temptation to add lighthouses, quahogs, and the meaningless Ocean State motto. A license tag is, ultimately, for identification and is not a mini-billboard
A license plate, like a classic example of industrial design, such as a steam locomotive, a 1936 Cord, or a perfectly weighted chef's knife, must be simple and devoid of superfluous ornament. Similarly, our next license plate should be a strong statement, without any embarrassing chamber of commerce boosterism.
If such restraint is impossible in our super tacky age, perhaps we could at least offer the option of retro license plates. California has done this successfully; car owners can secure the gold-on-black plates from the 1950s.
During World War II, when steel was limited to military purposes, Rhode Island turned to aluminum for license plates. The black on an industrial metal finish is one of the handsomest car tags ever. Simple, elegant, no-nonsense. This would be my choice for the new and ideal Rhode Island license plate. A non-reflectorized tag would be less expensive to manufacture, and the state could forgo the purchase of the digital machines.
What would this say about Rhode Island? It would announce that we are self-assured and have a refined sense of design.
