ALPCA Garden State Region

Last week in part two we continued our look at the development of the 1992 passenger plates . This week we will take a look at how the design finalized.

On June 7, 1990, the Reflectorized License Plate Selection Commission held its fourth meeting. This time it occurred at the offices of the New Jersey Automobile Dealers Association (today the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc.) in Trenton. Around 9:00 p.m. the venue of the meeting shifted to the parking lot of the association’s building to conduct some field tests of license plates.

As a baseline, a then current buff on blue plate and a black on reflective white plate were placed on a vehicle, then illuminated with the headlights from another vehicle three times – from about 160 feet, 80 feet, and 40 feet away. The plates were then photographed by a Division of Motor Vehicles photographer. The process was repeated with three sample plates, “specifically the plates with the solid yellow and gradated goldfinch yellow background and blue, black and green words, symbols, and alphanumeric sequence”. The commission members felt that the plate with the “gradated goldfinch yellow background and green words, symbol, and alphanumeric sequence” was not as visible as those that utilized blue or black and that a further test would be needed.

The final round of tests happened on June 28th in the same location as the first. The same basic methodology was used, but would test three new samples. The samples all had the goldfinch yellow to pale yellow gradient fade reflective background but each plate used different colors for the serial, state name and slogan – green, blue and black.

The tests found that all the combinations had roughly equal legibility, design, and visibility, but the black plate was felt to be the easiest to read while the green plate was the most aesthetically appealing. However, the concerns of road safety and legibility for law enforcement won out and the commission went with black:
“Although the green plate was not significantly worse in terms of legibility and sharpness of image, the color black for the words, symbol and alphanumeric sequence made that plate sharper, crisper, and easier to read. The plate with the black alphanumeric sequence on a background of goldfinch yellow fading to pale yellow was deemed to be superior for the purposes of highway safety, vehicle identification, and law enforcement.”

The committee’s report gave the following specifics for the new plate design:

Background Color: Goldfinch yellow across the top one third of the plate with the color fading to pale yellow over the remaining two thirds of the plate surface.

Color of Words, Symbols, and Alphanumeric Sequence: Black

New Jersey: As a graphic design on the reflective sheeting and centered across the top for all registration plates.
Shape of the State: Embossed in the center of the plate between the six character alphanumeric sequence for standard passenger automobile plates and omitted on special plates whenever it would interfere with the alphanumeric sequence.

Garden State: As a graphic design on the reflective sheeting and centered across the bottom for all standard passenger automobile plates. (N.J.S.A.39:3-33.2 requires the words “Garden State” to be imprinted on each passenger automobile registration plate.) When the space across the bottom is needed to designate the vehicle type, a reflective sheeting without the “Garden State” graphic design willbe used and, across the bottom, words designating the vehicle type will be embossed.

One thing to note is that the commission never specified the serial format. When the plates made their debut in November of 1992, they were seven character plates in an ABC1234 format starting with AAA1000. However, due to legibility concerns the seven character plates stopped being issued at ADJ9999. The plates still remain valid, but a new serial format starting at BA-100A was introduced in 1993. That lasted until May of 1999 when plates in the AAA-12A format, as used on the last issues of the buff on blue plates, began to be issued and still are today.

Since then, there have been some variations of the design. This was mostly due to a change from the original reflective sheeting vendor 3M to Avery then back to 3M.  However the biggest change was the removal of the sticker boxes in 2007.  Since stickers were only used on passenger plates from November 1999 until October 2004, the continued presence of the boxes for them was unnecessary.

If you have a plate you would like featured as a Plate of the Week, please contact us or put a photo of the plate in our flickr group and drop us a line.

Last week in part one we began our look at the development of the 1992 passenger plates . This week we will take a look at how the final design developed.

The third meeting of the Reflectorized License Plate Selection Commission on May 9, 1990, had public testimony.  The August 2, 1990 report of the commission mentions two interesting proposals.

The first was from Assemblyman D. Bennett Mazur of Fort Lee in Bergen County. He proposed a plate that would eliminate the traditional and mandated “Garden State” slogan with the more tourism friendly “Seashore State” slogan along with an image of a seagull in the center of the plate to help promote the state. The commission felt differently noting that the seagull image was distracting and made the plate’s serial number harder to read. The commission’s report stated the reason for the dismissal of Mazur’s proposal and states something that most other states seem to have chosen to ignore: “The purpose of a registration plate is for vehicle identification and distracting extras, such as the seagull silhouette, prevent quick and accurate identification of the vehicle.”

The second came from James Terry of Clifton in Passaic County. He came up with a plate of his own design which was rather complicated. Terry’s plates were translucent, but required the vehicle’s license plate illumination light to be placed behind the plate.  The commission’s report noted: It was pointed out that P.L.1989, c.202 requires the issuance of a new registration plate wich is “fully treated with a reflectorized materieal designed to increase … nighttime visibility and legiblity.” Mr. Terry’s suggested plate would not meet the requirements of the law. In addtion, the effectiveness of Mr. Terry’s suggested plate depends on a working light bulb. Light bulbs, however, do not burn out or may be deliberately removed, thereby rendering this plate ineffective.

The final speaker that day was David Pointon, regional administator for 3M’ s Traffic Control Division. He discussed the methods of reflectoriztion including his company’s Scotchlite, presented a video of the plate production process in Minnesota and offered to the committee a company paper on license plate design considerations.

It was at this point the commission got closer to the final design. From their report:
After the speakers’ presentations, the members discussed the second set of sample plates developed atthe commission’s request. The members unanimously agreed that the new plate should be clear and uncluttered in design so as to be readily identified as a New Jersey plate and so that its alphanumeric sequence is accurately and easily read by day or night.  Once again, a clear and uncluttered design was deemed necessary for law  enforcement and highway safety  purposes.  The members also agreed that the plate should be aesthetically pleasing so that it projects a positive image of New Jersey.

Next week we will take a look at how the design finalized and evolved.

If you have a plate you would like featured as a Plate of the Week, please contact us or put a photo of the plate in our flickr group and drop us a line.

Last week we took a look at New Jersey’s first attempt with license plates that used reflective sheeting in 1969 . This week we begin a look at the state’s next go around with reflective sheeted plates the 1992 passenger plate. The story is a bit more involved than you would think.

On December 8, 1989 Governor Thomas Kane signed into law a bill that would take New Jersey on the path to a new reflective license plate. The law, P.L.1989, c.202, created the Reflectorized License Plate Selection Commission to create a new license plate for the Garden State.

The law stated:
The commission shall consist of five members, three appointed by the Governor, one by the President of the Senate, and one by the Speaker of the General Assembly. The commission shall select the color scheme and design of the new reflectorized license plate after considering the needs of law enforcement and highway safety, aesthetics, cost and the continued ability of the corrections system to manufacture the plate. The commission will first meet within 60 days of the effective date of this act and shall report its choice to the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles within 180 days of this act becoming effective. The markings on the plates shall be in accordance with specifications prescribed by the director.

The initial members of the commission who were Senator Frank X. Graves, Jr. (appointed by Senate President John Russo), Assemblyman Robert E. Littell (appointed by Assembly Speaker Chuck Hardwick), and State Police Superintendent Colonel Clinton L. Pagano, Sr. (appointed by Governor Kean). At the commission’s organizational meeting on February 5, 1990 Graves was selected as chairman and Littell as vice-chairman. Grave’s tenure was cut shout by his death on March 4th and he was replaced by Senator Francis J. McManimon.

On April 26, 1990 the committee members were finalized. First, State Police Colonel Pagano resigned and became an advisor. The new Governor, James Florio, appointed Steven Adams, a creative director at an advertising agency; Janice Conklin, a free-lance graphic artist; and the President of the New Jersey Automobile Dealers Association, Charles Walton, to the commission.

At the April 9th meeting, the commission made sure the Auto Tag Shop at Bayside Prison in Cumberland County could handle the job and the costs involved. They also looked into the two common methods of reflectorization in use at the time – glass beads on paint (then used by 7 states) and reflective sheeting (then used by 42 states). The commission determined that reflective sheeting would be the best option.

It was also at this meeting the graphic design of the plates was first brought up. The committee inspected several sample plates to come up with a license plate that met the needs of both safety and law enforcement. A white background was determined to have the best reflective qualities, however it was used by so many other jurisdictions it would not be distinctive enough. The second choice was a yellow background.

1990 prototype plates, courtesy Jim Moini.

From the August 2, 1990 report of the commission:
The members studied these first samples and discussed the features of each, such as the placement and graphic style of the words “New Jersey” and “Garden State,” the size and shape of the alphanumeric sequence, and the placement of a small square, either outlined or “debossed,” in the left hand corner of the plate to mark the place where in the future a registration sticker may be placed. The commission recommends that the Division of Motor Vehicles implement the use of registration plate inserts. These inserts should be attached to the registration plate to indicate that the vehicle possesses a valid registration certificate and to assist in ensuring compliance with compulsory motor vehicle insurance requirements.

So if you ever wondered why there were sticker boxes on the passenger plates that took years to get used, there is you answer.

Next week we will take a look at how the design developed.

If you have a plate you would like featured as a Plate of the Week, please contact us or put a photo of the plate in our flickr group and drop us a line.

In our last installment of Plate of the Week we looked at at the short lived  The Center for Food Action organizational plate. This week we take a look at New Jersey’s first reflective sheeted passenger plate.

If you think the first New Jersey passenger license plates that used 3M Scotchlite reflective sheeting were those first issued in 1992 you are wrong. This type of reflective plate first made their appearance in 1969 beginning with plate RIA-100 and ending at SZZ-999 in 1970.

During this period other types such as trailer (which had been using glass beaded paint for reflectivity since the 1959 base was introduced) and commercial also used the sheeting from 3M.

Most references to these reflective plates call them an experiment. Given the fact that it took twenty-two years for New Jersey to go back to reflective Scotchlite plates (and only after much research and testing), it would be logical to surmise that this first flirtation with reflectivity was a failed experiment.

If you have a plate you would like featured as a Plate of the Week, please contact us or put a photo of the plate in our flickr group and drop us a line.