License Plates
Jan-Mar 2023
The Overview
The ask was: 'do something creative for 40 days'. I decided to redesign U.S. license plates each day. I did this in two parts—I researched current license plate usage to determine the best practices in license plate design, then created a system as a template for the designs.
Roles
User Experience
System Design
Accessible Design
Graphic Design
Before
After
The Research
What started out as a light creative exercise turned into a research sprint. After day 6 of designing new plates with no direction, I turned back to some resources that would help me make more informed design decisions. I collected data from over 50 videos, 3 podcasts, over 40 articles, hundreds of photos, and 70 pages of a scientific investigation into license plate function.
I watched I watched 47 of them over 7 hours and 54 seconds.
Podcasts? I listened to 3 of them over 2 hour, 33 minutes and 28 seconds.
Online articles? I read 39 of them, and wandered around 2 subreddits.
An investigation of The Functions and Design of Motor Vehicle License Plates? I studied all 70 pages.
License Plates are being treated like vehicle ornamentation rather than vehicle identification. This leads to problems with legibility and recognition.
For example: Embossing the serial numbers on license plates increases their visibility in various conditions, such as when they are covered with dirt or snow. Also, embossed license plates are sturdier compared to flat plates.
How might we make license plates more legible?
The Goal
Here's what the research boils down to. The registration number on a license plate is the most important element that needs to be read quickly from a far distance. To support this conclusion, I've complied guidelines established in regards to registration number height and width, stroke width, type styles, plate dimensions, slogan removal, state name height, character embossing, color contrast ratios, serial order recall, and balanced legibility between letters and numerals.
The Redesigns
The system informed the designs of each of my 40 redesigned license plates.
The Tools
Adobe Illustrator