It’s been 30 years since Florida’s Governor and cabinet opened up a contest to design the state’s license plate. The plate designs were finally put on display in a new exhibit.
Miami Vice, Flamingos, dolphins, and palm trees - If you haven’t been to the Florida Historic Capitol Museum in a while, then you might be surprised to see license plate designs, of all things, depicting what Floridians thought best represented the sunshine state back in 1985. All citizen designed, some of the 3,500 drawings are part of the new exhibit entitled, Driving Florida’s Image: The 1985 License Plate Contest. While interesting to look at, these designs lead to the question of what the future holds for Florida’s state license plates.
The state currently has more than 120 specialty license plate designs any driver can purchase to support a cause of their choosing, yet some lawmakers have asked if that is too many. Current law in Florida prohibits the creation of new specialty plates. Yet, Driving Florida’s Image encourages license plate creativity from the exhibit-goers, with a table to draw your own version of Florida ideals and add them to the display.
The Exhibits Manager at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum, Lisa Barton, said letters from citizens were included with license plates in the making of the exhibit, and they show Miami Vice was on the popular brain in 1985.
“There’s no doubt about the positive influence the popular television show Miami Vice has had on our beloved state. I propose we color our plates the same color as the Miami Vice logo which introduces the show. They make the state of Florida look tropical and exotic. Potential snow birds cannot help but see our warm and exotic tags and yearn to bask on our warm beaches and partake of our sophisticated, cosmopolitan nightlife,” Barton said.
As it turns out, a Miami Vice colored plate was one of the six finalists at the end of the six week long submission period 30 years ago. None of the six finalists won the contest however, backlash led state officials to simply reverse the coloring from the 1977 design at the end of it all.
Barton said she doesn’t know what the future of Florida license plates looks like:
“For so long the outline of the state has been on the plate and also either an orange or orange blossoms in some kind of configuration, so I don’t know – they might just want to stick with that. There is definitely a precedent for that design now,” she said.
The exhibit, Driving Florida’s Image: The 1985 License Plate Contest celebrates 30 years of history in the state. Whether or not a contest to design Florida’s next license plate is ever held again, the display leaves visitors with the knowledge that the state archives have a bunch of would-be license plates, with rockets and oceans on them.