Arts & Culture
A Lot on Its Plate: The State of Texas Offers up a Feast for Drivers' Eyes.
On June 2nd, the Texas Department of Transportation (TDOT) unveiled what the Dallas Morning News called “a cool new license plate.” Studded at the bottom with a very real-looking view of the sun-baked Davis Mountains, which stares out at drivers from beneath an expanse of what could well be a … warm afternoon sky, the thing doesn’t exactly warrant that particular adjective. But reporter Kevin Krause’s point is still valid: The sucker looks pretty awesome.
Come to think of it, the tag that it’s replacing – despite its comparatively plain (and over-collaged, thanks to the likes of an absurdly rendered floating spaceship) appearance — was also something of a winner. Centered on a cowboy riding on a plain shrunk by an expanse of Western sky, that former plate accomplished what so many of its peers don’t: It managed to encapsulate both the romance posed by the western United States and the romance carried along the American road. And in so doing, it made for a perfectly succinct statement about both the state and the purpose that it represents. Put simply, the State of Texas seems to do this sort of thing better than most other jurisdictions.
Look: You may not think so, but this shit is important. A license plate is a marker — yes, of proper ownership, and paid taxes and fees — but also of heritage, of origin. Of from whence your ass came. Your tag doesn’t just tell other people about whether or not you forked over the dough for vanity plates (or some kind of cause-backing special-edition bumper-statement); it tells them about deeper realms of your identity. A Texan is, thanks to TDOT, a frontiersman both at home and wherever he or she brings his or her Chevy. A Georgian? For all other drivers know, they probably live with James inside his giant peach.
Of course, the fact that Texas has more in terms of a claim on romantic imagery than, say, Delaware — whose drivers are forced to sport the sort of monochromatics that go a long way toward reinforcing the idea that the place is a Mecca for accountants — might have something to do with all of this. Still, having easy pickins for source material doesn’t automatically spell iconic when it comes to tag design (ahem, New York; what the fuck happened to those Lady Liberty plates?), nor does having to dig for mythology mean that a State should resign itself to two-color representation (check out this fine Nebraskan example).
Those states that still insist on printing up simply utilitarian tags should probably consider the repercussions in terms of potential income: Let’s say you’re Vermont. You press stacks and stacks of plain green tags, and when your drivers get stuck in traffic while trying to negotiate the infuriating roads of Boston, all those would-be Masshole tourists get the message that your state is…
totally fucking boring. So you can flush those Burberry-clad tourist millions down the toilet.
Sure, it’s just a license plate. The thing probably gets banged together by folks whose only relevant skill-set is the ability to do two-to-five well enough that they get the privilege of a work detail. And, after it leaves the prison factory, it’s probably going to get more facetime with fenders than it will with any prospective tourists. But c’mon: Have a little pride, Vermont, New York, and Georgia. And New Jersey and Maryland and Florida. Make me care about your state; make me want to come visit. I know that there’s more to you than you’re letting on. I mean, if Texas — which, in the process, managed to stay away from some of the images that most of the world would first associate with the place — can dig deep and use some of the most inhospitable geography on the face of the planet to evoke positive, touristy visions, chances are that you can do better.
Comments
2 Comments
Yeah but what’s with the paint scribbles in the upper left? Are Texans especially prone to sloppiness or early 90’s-era design motifs?
Anyway, see here for probably the most adorable plate: http://www.kentuckyroads.com/images/kentuckyroads/plate.jpg
[...] day later, AP asked “what’s with the paint scribbles in the upper left [of the new Texas license plate]? Are [...]
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