Why does ‘Nomadland’ use old license plates?

Posted on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In the embedded tweet is a poster for the streaming movie Nomadland. It should take about five seconds to see where I’m going with this post. The states are ordered by their admission to the Union, which is a neat thing that could stand to be used more widely. I’d absolutely endorse this order for roll-calls at national political conventions.

As far as I know, the movie is not a period piece. So why are many of the license plates depicted decades old? From what I can see:

  • Iowa’s is, of course, the 1986 series with the “86” taken off the upper right corner. The font is just a hair off — the “D” is a little different and looks like an inverse of Michigan in the same row; it should look more like Connecticut’s.
  • Illinois’ is the 1980s/1990s version.
  • Wisconsin’s design also dates back to the 1980s. The state actually is using the same style today but went to black, seven-character plates in 2017.
  • Nebraska’s is from a short period in the 1980s.
  • Georgia retains the 1990 label at the top.
  • Ohio is its 2003 Bicentennial version.
  • Minnesota and the Dakotas, and maybe a couple others, aren’t embossed but the vast majority of the rest clearly are. However, embossed plates began to disappear in the mid-2000s.
  • Typography for some, including Idaho, absolutely screams 1980s.
  • Oklahoma is a late 1990s-through-2010 design.
  • Other states’ plates have website addresses on them, so they’re obviously somewhat recent if not current.

A potential explanation for this that comes to mind is something of a depressing one: License plates of the 2020s are too similar to each other. Aside from Illinois’ red, Iowa and surrounding states now use black lettering. Many, many states — including, as seen on the poster, Kansas and Washington — use some version of a light blue gradient/graphic background. Iowa’s white-on-blue 1986 series was clean and distinctive, something that cannot be said for today’s design.

Another possibility pops up with a study of the Wyoming plate, which does not include the famous cowboy silhouette. That symbol, it turns out, is a trademark of the state of Wyoming. Maybe there’s something about infringement going on. On the other hand, it’s not consistent, as Kentucky’s “Unbridled Spirit” and South Dakota’s “Great Faces. Great Places.” slogans are just fine.

I will give the promotions/design team credit for using actual plates as the basis for the “NMDLND” letters. It’s just really weird that they went with an assortment of eras.

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