Photograph by Jessica Gladstone, 2006.Car-commuters (and I am one) are a curious breed, hovering on one another's bumpers, desperate to inch forward, determined to avoid, at all costs, the incipient road-rage that is the natural consequence of our daily peregrinations. Behind the wheel at least twice each day, we travel well-worn routes to familiar destinations, negotiating construction sites, detouring the odd accident and — worst of all — avoiding the multitasking driver as she struggles to simultaneously apply mascara, talk on a cellphone and cast sidelong glances at her humming Blackberry while trying to make a left-hand-turn at a four-way intersection.
Chances are, if the multitasking maniac is from Virginia, her biography is stamped in metal on the rear bumper of her car: (WAY LATE , L8 4CT). Windows up and music blaring, the hermetically-sealed orbit of the solo commuter remains well-protected from public view. So how is it that it manages, nevertheless, to communicate — and usually IN ALL CAPS?
Behold, the Virginia Vanity plate: motor-messaging gone wild.
The
State of Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles boasts more than 180 customized license plate designs, more than any other state in the nation. What's more, they make it easy for anyone to
design a license plate. If you've got an idea for one, you read up on becoming a sponsor, fork over 350 pre-paid specimens (along with their digital files, on the assumption that even more of them will be requested) and you're done. Virginians appear to favor this practice to a degree bordering on the ridiculous. (Try it yourself
here.)
The ubiquity of the vanity plate makes for a discordant kind of poetry: it's a function of brevity and bad spelling, a terse kind of haiku that's oddly self-referential. Sometimes, the message being transmitted is merely a reflection of the car itself: "ITS EASY" for a Porsche Boxster or "BIG ENOF" for a Ford Explorer or "DEAD LEG" for a 1973 Wolkswagon minibus. Yet this is just the tip of the vanity-plate phenomenon — a custom that, come to think of it, seems ideally poised for the short attention span of the American public.
You can tell a lot about a car from its license plate. There are, for instance, cars that work (MNY MNGR, ANM8R, PER4MER, C RTUNST) while some just want to flirt (OH HUNNY, 4ASMIL); cars that play (LV2NIT, SQ DNCRS, GLFGAL), while others just want to eat (GUARANA, CHALUPAS). There are sports fans (LUV TWINS); political pundits (HOTAIRE); and hometown hotties (JRSY GL) as well as huge numbers of people who simply want you to know that they're no longer technological luddites (BLOGGER, RESOURC, BLOWN XP, IHACK4U, UPGRADE, N2 OSX, MAC G33K, MOZILLA.) Finally — and who can blame them? — there are cars that just want to get away from it all (GO2MAUI, LV HWAII, 2KEYWST).
In the end, vanity plates inhabit a peculiar world: cryptic and hokey, they begin to tell a larger story — not so much about the car as about the car's owner. Not long ago, I was startled when one such owner jumped excitedly out of his Honda Accord, demanding an explanation: why was I taking a picture of his license plate, he wanted to know? I smiled, and gestured to the subject of my gaze: "LRN2JGL?" I replied with as much admiration as I could manage. "I've always wanted to do that."
* What a Racket
Jessica Gladstone is a graphic designer based in Northern Virginia. A recent M.G.D. graduate from North Carolina State University, she is an adjunct professor at the Art Institute of Washington.
Comments [24]
08.11.06
10:29
Can you believe there is a Fox Hunting plate? I cannot.
08.12.06
01:08
08.12.06
01:27
Although I haven't been surprised at the proliferation of license plate motifs, I have been amazed that law enforcement agencies haven't objected to the ones that abandon the basic state color scheme. It has become difficult to determine what state a plate is from. It's one thing to have a picture of Ronald Reagan or a firefighter (both available in California) but quite another to have one's school colors. I'm also surprised that there are no laws against all of the license plate frames that cover up state names. Here in North Carolina the state agency that issues the plate will sell you a frame that declares your love of Jesus Christ but obscures the all-important "First in Flight" information.
The weird thing about Virginia is the proliferation of typefaces for the license numbers. And all of them have the look of someone's first attempt at drawing a typeface from memory. My theory is that unlike many states where prisoners make the plates, in Virginia they design the type for them.
08.12.06
09:57
Mind you, this was clearly a Republican's vehicle, because there were a couple of "W for president" stickers on the car. Smug.
I couldn't get close enough to tell which political operative was driving the thing, but I'm sure he or she is a miserable human being.
08.12.06
12:09
I read D.O. with the expectation of thoughtful observation on the role of design in contemporary culture. Is D.O. becoming another self-obsessed blog in which the writers proffer their whimsical and inane musings on the trivialities of popular culture?
SAYT8NT so.
08.12.06
01:10
i think its interesting to think of vanity plates as a precursor to community website personal profile headlines as well as text message. the language is usually short and limited to eight letters, the message is scanned quickly in a high speed environment, and its a top down template (you cant get any more bureaucratic than the DMV) with bottom up customization that results in humor, personality, and cleverness.
08.12.06
01:28
08.12.06
05:30
08.12.06
05:37
Mind you, this was clearly a Democrat's vehicle, because there were a couple well worn "Kerry Edwards" stickers on the car. Smug.
I couldn't get close enough to tell which political operative was driving the thing, but I'm sure he or she is a miserable human being.
08.12.06
11:23
Your rant is interesting and passionate - but I fear you missed the point of the piece. True, this piece may read as light and entertaining, but there is a larger point, or it wouldn't have been written. Studying culture, observing our fellow folk, caused me to introspect as to why people brand their cars (extensions of themselves) with quippy, seemingly craaaazy wordplay. That alone is curious cause for contemplation. As a designer, I find myself sensitive to titles, hierarchy and the reductive nature of modern speech. Repeatedly observing such a public forum for display of these kinds of things caused me to pour forth whatever wordy wit I could muster to start a conversation. When observing popular culture, inevitable patterns emerge. I choose canvas some of those generally, but as you can see from comments on the other posts, some plates serve as conduits for sharp commentary. I once saw a Virginia US military plate branded "ASKTELL". Not far to the left on the bumper was a rainbow sticker. Those three pieces of graphic information made quite a statement. Perhaps that's the kind of deeper meaning you might be interested in discussing.
08.13.06
10:59
Tire:
08.13.06
03:45
08.14.06
08:42
08.14.06
11:01
I can only assume the DMV approved it not knowing what it means.
08.14.06
12:23
URL GRL
XML MAN
*shiver*
08.14.06
12:50
08.14.06
02:27
08.14.06
02:58
I've seen a similar plate here in Phoenix, I think it was "LOL WTF"
08.14.06
04:41
I can only assume that Plan A was a souped-up Mitsubishi.
08.15.06
10:02
I'm not so sure it's the serif font as the fact you can waste half a work day with your coworkers trying out license plate options online; after my office did so a few years ago, at least half of us got vanity plates. It's a cheap way to mildly pimp your ride, and you won't be scraping bumper stickers off your fender for an hour when you get disillusioned with your HASLHFF branding.
08.16.06
01:40
I was a little dissapointed when I saw actual african-american women in the car...
hehe
08.16.06
01:44
3M TA3
08.16.06
09:05
08.25.06
05:30