New design for Russian license plates

Task:

to create a universal and long-term format for state vehicle registration plates that will be loved by people.

Release date: 25.11.2016

A new format of Russian license plates was developed at Art. Lebedev Studio. Beautiful and informative plates make their owners proud: any letters with the exception of the region code can be chosen by the driver.

Region

Series

Number (H, I, J, P, Q, S, U, V, W are not used)

The number is taken

Choose a number and claim it by publishing it on a social network

Number reserved. Create another one?

Already reserved:

.RU

Interesting numbers:

.RU

The previous format had a slew of significant shortcomings including low informational value and constant need to create new region codes (aboveto the left are Moscow region codes accumulated over the years)

The proposed coding system will provide sufficient numbering for the next 100 years offering over 4,5 billion combinations.

Number of symbols on new plates is roughly the same as the number of symbols in 10 750 copies of War and Peace

If one were to lay all the license plates in a row, they would cover the distance from the Earth to the Moon six times over

There are enough combinations to register each vehicle in Russia 80 times

The current license plates assume guessing the region by its number code, which requires remembering all the codes.

The region on the new license plates is designated by a clear abbreviation and a beautiful coat of arms. Patriotism and mnemonics.

The twelve symbols of the old numbering scheme that were chosen based on their similarity with Latin letters can be successfully replaced with 17 letters of the Latin alphabet increasing the number of possible combinations.

The number and letter pairs can be easily memorized and pronounced in Russian, in English or using a phonetic alphabet.

The characters were chosen to make sure they cannot be confused with each other. Es, tse or see is the same letter C, and none of that “like the Russian C” nonsense. The letter Y can read as /waɪ/ or /juː/, but there is nothing to confuse it with, as the letter U is not used.

—Attention all units, I’m in pursuit of a red BMW, license plate three, four, T, A, N, K

—Your taxi is waiting. The registration number is 3, 4, T, A, N, K

—Owner of the vehicle with license plate three, four, Tatyana, Alexei, Nikolay, Konstantin, please come to the parking lot

Old symbols could be easily manipulated by adding strokes to existing glyphs.

The specially created typeface for new plates contains a variety of details that make similar symbols very different. Making changes to them is much harder now.