Utah’s specialty license plates receive a colorful new glow-up

SALT LAKE CITY — For years, many Utahns vented about the state’s specialty license plates, which Jason Gardner described as having a clip art aesthetic.

Utah offers dozens of speciality plates that break off from the three primary standard plates that the state issues drivers. Up until recently, they were white with logos of higher education schools, nonprofit organizations, state agencies, military or sports teams on the left-hand side. The extra money from their sale goes to various causes.

Everything seemed to change when the Utah Historical Society released a throwback black license plate with white numbering and lettering in 2023.

It was so popular that Utah lawmakers rewrote the law to how much money the agency could collect from it, but it may have also opened the door to what specialty plates could look like, said Gardner, deputy executive director of the Utah State Tax Commission, which oversees the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles.

“It opened up a universe of possibilities, I suppose,” he said.

Utah’s speciality license plates are entering a colorful new era as the state’s fiscal year begins. The Utah Division of Motor Vehicles officially unveiled new license plate designs on Wednesday, which include a dozen new plate options — plus a proposed Utah Mammoth plate that would make 13.

Some went into new colors. There’s two shades of blue to represent BYU’s academic and athletic causes and a red — and black — plate for the University of Utah. There’s a navy blue Utah State University plate and a purple one for Weber State University.

The biggest changes come from plates representing various outdoor and environmental causes. A new Great Salt Lake plate features an American white pelican soaring over the lake at sunset. The “Share the Road” plate supporting cycling in the state depicts a bicyclist riding into Utah’s vast red rock landscapes — an alternate to the state’s regular Arches plate.

Utah’s wildlife options feature elk, kestrels and trout with colorful displays, or there’s a mule deer skull on the dark plate background. Others promoting Utah’s dark skies and camping outdoors also add to darker plate options now available.

Some organizations stuck with the white plate, but those also got boosted with different plate numbering colors to match the logo and a new colorful line at the bottom to spruce it up.

Getting here started a little after Utah drivers went berserk over the black plates. The Utah Legislature passed a law that created a new design committee to review plate designs, seeing it as a way to improve exposure for Utah, Gardner explained.

“License plates are kind of like a billboard for the state of Utah, right? That travels all over the country and is very visible,” he said. “If these things are going to be a visible representation of the state, the Legislature wanted to make sure that they looked good.”

At the same time, he said the state updated technology over the past few years that make it more efficient to offer more unique designs. The groups and DMV worked together over the year to create new designs for drivers to choose from.

These designs were created to still be uniform, while coordinating with the Utah Department of Public Safety to make sure they could still be viewed by officers and picked up by cameras for public safety reasons.

The groups behind the plates were thrilled they could offer even more unique designs, which are now available.

“I’m excited to have a Utah license plate that captures the vibrant colors and beauty of the Great Salt Lake sunsets that so many Utahns love,” said Rep. Paul Cutler, R-Centerville, who helped champion the Great Salt Lake preservation specialty license plate.

When the new plates arrive

Gardner didn’t have sales numbers one day in, but he said the DMV’s phones and website were abuzz with the new designs.

None of the new designs are in immediate stock, but people can order them now. People who have an old special plate can upgrade theirs for the cost of the new plate if it’s for the same cause. Those seeking to switch to a new special plate cause will have to pay for the cost of the plate, plus the annual fee that’s donated to the cause.

Plate fees are generally close to $20, while most contributions range from $15 to $40, depending on the organization.

The DMV is preparing for a potential backlog, depending on the popularity of the new designs, so it is asking people to be patient while the demand is high. Gardner estimates it could take approximately four weeks for new designs to arrive, double the normal wait time. Personalized plates could take an another two weeks on top of that.

Yet, he and his colleagues are eager to see how the new designs fare.

“I’m interested to see, once we have the first month’s worth of data, how popular and which ones are the most popular,” he said.