{"id":12766,"date":"2021-03-03T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=12766"},"modified":"2021-03-02T00:28:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T06:28:17","slug":"why-does-nomadland-use-old-license-plates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2021\/03\/why-does-nomadland-use-old-license-plates\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does &#8216;Nomadland&#8217; use old license plates?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the embedded tweet is a poster for the streaming movie <i>Nomadland<\/i>. It should take about five seconds to see where I&#8217;m going with this post.\u00a0The states are ordered by their admission to the Union, which is a neat thing that could stand to be used more widely. I&#8217;d absolutely endorse this order for roll-calls at national political conventions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"ro\" dir=\"ltr\">Nomadland &#8211; new film poster<\/p>\n<p>Director: Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<br \/>Writers: Jessica Bruder, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<br \/>Stars: Frances McDormand, Gay DeForest, Patricia Grier <\/p>\n<p>Release date: February 19, 2021<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NMLND?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NMLND<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NOMADLAND?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NOMADLAND<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PzkS3O72g1\">pic.twitter.com\/PzkS3O72g1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Movie Trailers and TV Promos (@teaser_trailer_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/teaser_trailer_\/status\/1360363346776752130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 12, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Iowa&#8217;s is, of course, the 1986 series with the &#8220;86&#8221; taken off the upper right corner. The font is just a hair off \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/listing\/853282605\/real-usa-license-plates-from-1986-base\">the &#8220;D&#8221; is a little different<\/a> and looks like an inverse of Michigan in the same row; it should look more like Connecticut&#8217;s.<\/li>\n<li>Illinois&#8217; is the 1980s\/1990s version.<\/li>\n<li>Wisconsin&#8217;s design also dates back to the 1980s. The state actually is using the same style today but went to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisn.com\/article\/wisconsin-license-plates-to-get-seven-characters\/9272344#\">black, seven-character plates<\/a> in 2017.<\/li>\n<li>Nebraska&#8217;s is from a short period in the 1980s.<\/li>\n<li>Georgia retains the 1990 label at the top.<\/li>\n<li>Ohio is its 2003 Bicentennial version.<\/li>\n<li>Minnesota and the Dakotas, and maybe a couple others, aren&#8217;t embossed but the vast majority of the rest clearly are. However, embossed plates began to disappear in the mid-2000s.<\/li>\n<li>Typography for some, including Idaho, absolutely screams 1980s.<\/li>\n<li>Oklahoma is a late 1990s-through-2010 design.<\/li>\n<li>Other states&#8217; plates have website addresses on them, so they&#8217;re obviously somewhat recent if not current.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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&#8217; red, Iowa and surrounding states now use black lettering. Many, many states \u2014 including, as seen on the poster, Kansas and Washington \u2014 use some version of a light blue gradient\/graphic background. Iowa&#8217;s white-on-blue 1986 series was clean and distinctive, something that cannot be said for today&#8217;s design.<\/p>\n<p>Another possibility pops up with a study of the Wyoming plate, which does <em>not<\/em> include the famous cowboy silhouette. That symbol, it turns out, is a <a href=\"https:\/\/sos.wyo.gov\/Services\/BHRHistory.aspx\">trademark of the state of Wyoming<\/a>. Maybe there&#8217;s something about infringement going on. On the other hand, it&#8217;s not consistent, as Kentucky&#8217;s &#8220;Unbridled Spirit&#8221; and South Dakota&#8217;s &#8220;Great Faces. Great Places.&#8221; slogans are just fine.<\/p>\n<p>I will give the promotions\/design team credit for using actual plates as the basis for the &#8220;NMDLND&#8221; letters. It&#8217;s just really weird that they went with an assortment of eras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the embedded tweet is a poster for the streaming movie Nomadland. It should take about five seconds to see where I&#8217;m going with this post.\u00a0The states are ordered by their admission to the Union, which is a neat thing &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2021\/03\/why-does-nomadland-use-old-license-plates\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-license-plates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12787,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766\/revisions\/12787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}