Dupage Policy Journal

A copywriter at Wheaton’s Ivor Andrew marketing agency recently dubbed Illinois’ new license plate the worst in the country based on typography, functionality and concept in a post on Medium.

“The Land of Lincoln. Our beloved flyover state, by the way, has a brand new license plate,” Luke Trayser wrote in his post. “Cool! And it’s … uh … It’s not good.”

Trayser challenged his co-workers at the agency to come up with eight better designs in eight hours, and judging by the comments on the post they were successful.

The new plate has been dubbed the "Half-Lincoln" plate because it features half of a picture of Abraham Lincoln, and Trayser criticized it for featuring elements of the skylines in Springfield and Chicago.

“Every part of the Illinois license plate reeks of design-by-committee,” Trayser wrote. “There were too many cooks in the kitchen who added too many ingredients, and the result is an ugly, illegible mess. It’s currently the worst license plate in America (with apologies to Ohio’s word cloud and Maryland’s state flag monstrosity).”