Melissa Nann Burke

The News Journal

The state%27s unadorned tags are referred to as %22Dull-aware%22 among license-plate hobbyists

Officials are cautious%2C remembering the outcry in 2002 after a run of plates printed in a different font

In January%2C Delaware%27s tags ranked the ugliest in the country in a national survey by CarInsurance.com

The Delaware license plate might get a makeover, ending its record as the longest-running plate design in the country. But some citizens aren't ready to say, "C U L8R."

The Small Wonder has an unusual attachment to its tags, and the traditionalist camp would be difficult to please. Others believe an updated look is overdue.

"It's a great idea. I think it's about time," said Jordan Irazabal, a plate collector in Wilmington.

The Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles has no timeline or mandate for the project, and a decision on whether to go through with a facelift is likely months away. That hasn't stopped plate enthusiasts from dreaming – or dreading – what the new plate could look like.

The state's unadorned tags are referred to as "Dull-aware" among license-plate hobbyists, said David Lincoln, a license-plate historian and collector in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The state began issuing gold-and-blue tags in 1958, and they've remained largely unchanged since.

"I've been advocating for a long time that a license plate is a 72-square-inch bitty ambassador for the state," Lincoln said. "People in other states see a Delaware plate, and it's nondescript. There should be something significant about a plate. It should have appeal."

The DMV isn't prepared to make a change just yet. Officials are being cautious, remembering the outcry in 2002 after a new manufacturer printed a run of plates in a different font.

The public-relations problem is similar to those faced by magazines and newspapers undergoing a redesign, said Rick Roat, co-founder of the Yorklyn font and graphic design firm House Industries. People don't realize they've become visually attached to something until it changes.

That's the thing you have to solve in every redesign," Roat said. "You have to be respectful of the past because you don't want to alienate people. But you also need to plan for the future."

William Morgan, an architecture writer, hopes the First State doesn't depart too much from its simple look: A buff-hued border and lettering against a dark-blue plate. He laments how U.S. license plate design devolved into a cluttered mess of computer-generated graphics in recent decades.

"I can imagine that whatever Delaware is planning is going to be absolutely horrific and gross," said Morgan, a University of Delaware alumnus now living in Providence, Rhode Island.

"It's always been a very nice, flat plate. If they do anything, they should just go back to the black plate with the diamond on it, and have no mottos, no lighthouses, no doghouses."

Ugliest in the land?

DMV Director Jennifer Cohan has heard both praise and complaints about Delaware's license plate design over the years.

The conversation inside the DMV was renewed in January after Delaware's tags ranked the ugliest in the country in a national survey by CarInsurance.com, she said.

"It came as a slap in the face to Delawareans. That got us thinking that maybe it's time to consider a design change," Cohan said.

It's "extremely unusual" to go 56 years without changing the base plate, Cohan said. Many states redesign their plates every five to six years.

"If we wouldn't get public support, we wouldn't do it," Cohan said. "We would guarantee that if people really wanted to keep their old one, or wanted the old design they could do that. We wouldn't force anyone to change."

Tag collectors and traders said they don't expect a great outcry, as long as Delaware continues to allow vehicle owners to display authentic or authorized replicas of the black-and-white porcelain enamel plates last issued in the war years of the 1940s.

Those rules wouldn't change, Cohan said. The DMV also would not reissue tag numbers.

"One of the things we continue to be cautious of is that license plates are extremely important to Delawareans. If we did make a change, it would not be something that would be significant," Cohan said. "There are no immediate plans. We've just been tinkering with some stuff."

The new plate wouldn't stray from the blue and gold rainbow. (Delaware's state colors reflect those worn by its soldiers during the Revolutionary War, historians say.) Delaware Code also mandates the plate display "Delaware" (spelled out) and "The First State" slogan.

Cost is also a concern. Adding a graphic, more colors or embossing would add to the price to manufacture each plate, and Cohan doesn't want to pay more than the $2.55 a plate the DMV pays now, she said.

"We've been working on the concept since last September or October," said DMV spokesman Mike Williams, himself a license-plate collector. "We've developed some images, mockups, for a new design, but we're not totally pleased yet. It's not perfect."

DMV officials would not share the prototypes, saying the designs are unrefined and have yet to be circulated among key lawmakers and other top officials.

"It would ruin the presentation of it. The surprise," Williams said. "First, we have to get people comfortable with the idea."

The Delaware font

Delaware last revamped the plate in 1958 when officials switched from black on stainless steel, to gold on blue. The shift was prompted by a federal mandate to standardize the size of license plates across the country, Lincoln said. Even then, Delaware dragged its feet.

"It took them two years to get on the bandwagon," Lincoln said. "It was supposed to take place in 1956. Delaware wasn't fully in compliance until 1958."

Since then, the plate has had minor revisions, such as the addition of "The First State" slogan in 1962. The plates went from riveted-on lettering to silk-screened lettering in 1968.

For decades, the plate stood out, if only because it was flat, not embossed like most other states'. Delaware is also the only state to never use letters on passenger-car plates, and to recycle tag numbers.

The font change in 2002 was remedied after the DMV had vendor Waldale Manufacturing Ltd. of Nova Scotia draw up a custom-made font, character by character, to more exactly mimic the set that Delawareans had grown accustomed to.

"They did get backlash on that, and a few of those older hideous ones are still on the road," said Laurel native Reid Williamson, a collector now living in Richmond, Va.

Williamson thinks that drastically different lettering might upset folks, especially because no other state uses what's come to be known as the "Delaware font."

"Any change would be less welcome in Delaware than any other state," Williamson said. "If they change to green and blue, or red and blue, you would have a riot on your hands. But if they stay within the blue and gold of Delaware state colors, they probably won't have a problem with the public."

Irazabal, who runs a website devoted to low-digit Delaware plates, hopes the redesign comes to fruition. He would like to see the state seal incorporated into the design, and perhaps the introduction of shades of blue fading from dark to light.

"I can't imagine doing anything other than blue and gold," Irazabal said. "They're having a contest right now for the [new] Animal Welfare specialty plate. Why not open this up to residents, too? There's plenty of people around that would do it."

Dave Miller, president of the Delaware Historic Plate Co. near Newark, predicts that "true blue" Delawareans won't be happy.

"Why fix what isn't broken?" said Miller, whose company hand crafts reproductions of the black-and-white porcelain plates. "There's lots of people who just don't care. To them, it's just a license plate. To me, if it's working, I don't know what the reason would be to change it."

Graphical explosion

Roat, the designer, always describes the blue-and-gold plate as "classy," he said.

"The black-and-white was never my era. It was always the blue and gold," said Roat, who grew up in the '60s. "There was a certain simplicity and cleanliness to those designs. The type and numbers were these beautiful monospaced numbers that were proportionally spaced and designed really nicely, with a consistent stroke. It was just simple. This is a license plate, not a billboard."

He is no fan of the proliferating special-interest and affinity plates in Delaware, or the general mashup of graphics and logos appearing on plates around the country.

That trend is also a concern to law enforcement and tolling authorities, in part because of legibility issues that can stump police and automated license-plate reading technology.

"Law enforcement uses [the technology] to catch stolen vehicles," said Brian Ursino, director of law enforcement for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. "States and toll authorities are losing revenue because of all the misreads of plates."

For instance, some "wild" specialty plates juxtapose graphics and a tag number of similar colors, making it difficult for automatic plate readers to discern, Ursino said.

He is part of an AAMVA working group that's developing standards for license plate design that will include technical specifications for color contrast and graphics, among other elements.

Ursino made traffic stops after joining the Washington State Patrol in 1989, and he could instantly recognize what state a vehicle was from by its license plate. Now, he sees Washington plates that he doesn't recognize. Many states have hundreds and hundreds of plates for sale, and that's a concern for law enforcement.

"The purpose of the license plate is to identify the vehicle, not to tell the world what your favorite flavor of coffee is," he said. "We've gotten too far afield."

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke.





DELAWARE REGISTRATIONS

Total registered vehicles: 873,000

Passenger cars: 406,000

Pleasure/Commercial "PC" vehicles (SUVs, hatchbacks, etc): 208,500

Commercial vehicles (trucks, vans and commercial vehicles): 134,000

Active vanity tags: 19,600

Organizational and other tags

Handicapped: 11,600

Volunteer firefighter: 2,240

Disabled American Veteran: 1,200

Ducks Unlimited: 1,115

Law Enforcement Memorial: 895

National Guard: 590

University of Delaware: 900

Source: Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles

SPECIALTY TAG SALES

Delaware's best-selling special-interest tags for this and last year have been the environmental plate series, whose proceeds benefit the Delaware Center for Inland Bays, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

TAG SALES 2013 2014 (through July 31) Lighthouse Environmental Plate 586 652 Marine Mammal & Sea Turtle Rescue & Conservation Plate 440 405 Duck Environmental Plate 144 155 Agricultural Farmland Preservation Plate 139 149 Animal Welfare Plate 84 101

Proceeds from the sales of the farmland preservation plate benefit the Delaware Farmland Preservation Fund used by the Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation; and proceeds from the Animal Welfare Plate benefit organizations or veterinary clinics providing low-cost dog and cat spaying and neutering, and nonprofit shelters for stray dogs and cats.

The special-interest tags must be ordered by mail. Visit dmv.de.gov for details.

Source: Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles