While, to my knowledge, there is not currently a plan to update Saskatchewan's license plates, it's easy to assume it's inevitable. The Saskatchewan Party government has always had a mantra of "telling the story of Saskatchewan," and even if it did not, it has been in the middle of a comprehensive rebranding of the province. Since the province's plates haven't been changed in some time, one can imagine that there's at least been thought to taking them in a new direction.
It wouldn't be the only province, as most recently Alberta has left Wild Rose Country - and a design that looked like it was made in the 1980s - and introduced a design that is, at best, a bit generic. It was selected via social media as the best of three somewhat boring designs, all of which failed at being a great plate design in my view. Using a photo of mountains as its central design element, it would work fine as a brochure for a mediocre resort hotel, but fails as a license plate.
What is a great plate? It needs to be something that's immediately recognizable, reads well at glance, and tells you a bit about the place it represents. The gold standard is the plate for the Northwest Territories, cut in the shape of a polar bear. It's the winner because it can never be confused for any other place, plus it tells you something important about the territories - namely, they are full of bears - in a fun way. If a cool shape is cheating, another great one is the state of Colorado. Like Alberta, it promotes the Rocky Mountains. Unlike Alberta, it does this with a more abstract representation - essentially, a squiggly line - that works on the road. It's extremely simple, it reads nicely, and we learn that Colorado is proud of its mountains.
Going by other North American plates, there are other mistakes to avoid. Including a website URL is always a bit cheesy, while the internet may be ubiquitous an actual URL gives you a whiff of being sold something, as though all of the drivers on the road are unwitting agents for the local tourism industry. It's also a good idea to go with as few colors as possible - three is the limit, any more and it gets busy. Wyoming is a good example of this rule - it actually would work well if it was just black on white, since the cowboy they use is a simple, direct image. Instead it has a skyline for a background, making it messy. Another example is Utah's Arches plate, which showcases a really cool part of the state in a way that makes it difficult to read the number. Fine if you're promoting tourism, bad if you're trying to identify a fleeing criminal. Another trap to avoid is the one that Montana has fallen into, with a seemingly infinite number of variations. Some are really cool - the one with the outline of the state on a blue background in particular - but once you see the hundredth plate design you begin to wonder if Montana is afraid of commitment.
But actually, the biggest lesson one can get from observing everyone else's plates is that, at the end of the day, there is no need to change Saskatchewan's design. It's simple, it's direct, it says something about the province - we like green and white. There's nothing that needs changing. While it's likely that there is some temptation to introduce something new, I'll just stick with the plate I've always had.
