Maybe you need to have grown up in New York State to find any particular delight in the design of the new New York State license plates. If you did, there’s a good deal of nostalgia in seeing what is essentially an older plate design. It’s also nice to see a design that doesn’t involve lots of colors or complicated imagery, but instead just simple type, color, and geometry.
However, the one big change they did make to the older design is also my big beef with this new design, and it’s that arched, dark blue field across the top. Why the arch? You just know someone thought it was too boring when it went straight across. You can almost hear a bureaucrat with a comb over and a clip-on tie saying “Make it pop!”* Also, that typeface is kind of ugly.
* Yes, my image of low-level bureaucrats is largely based on the characterization of authority figures in 80s teen comedies.
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The first time I saw the new plates, I thought they were awesome - and my feeling still stands. The dark blue and yellow/orange give it something that befits the "Empire State". I love it.
ReplyDeleteI like the arch - ON THE TOP. The concave arch that "EMPIRE STATE" has going on, however, is annoying as hell and completely unnecessary.
No, low-level bureaucrats create license plates like Ohio's. NY's is a study of subtlety and restraint compared to what we have to slap on our cars.
ReplyDeletehttp://orangejuiceblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Ohio-License-Plate.jpg
As a NY'er and a designer, I can't stand these new plates! They missed the "retro" mark. My registration renews in Sept; keeping my old plates.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in NYS and I saw this and immediately hated it. It certainly *references* the old plates, but this is just...blah.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for the cops trying to check this guy's license plate - those two messed-up sevens are ugly and almost illegible. Otherwise, it looks OK to me. Our MD tags are black on white - ugh. And then we have a new tag commemorating the War of 1812. Hello? Who commemorates a WAR???
ReplyDeleteI like the curve at the top and the corresponding curve in the text at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteTAXI CAB YELLOW.
ReplyDeleteSH*TTY.
Bleh. Ever since I started seeing these pop up, I have had one feeling...and it's similar to feeling I get with indigestion...
Love the colours, hate the curves.
ReplyDeleteGRR THOSE COLORS. They look so... tacky. Maybe it's because I grew up with it, but I much prefer the white and blue. Obviously the design on the plate wasn't perfect, but I'd grown attached to it.
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