Maryland Bay Plate - car license plate illustration by JEBDesign.com

The design and illustration of the Maryland "Treasure the Chesapeake" car license plate was a wonderful experience. I worked closely with the Chesapeake Bay Trust's Executive Director, David O'Neil. I presented six different concepts to the plate committee which are shown below. They immediately gravitated to the plate with both the heron and the crab. See more work by JEB Design, Inc.

Initial sketches for the Maryland Bay license plate

Below is the final digital illustration that was sent to 3M to produce the car plates.

Final illustration file used to produce the Maryland license plates

Technical illustrator notes:

I used Adobe illustrator’s gradient feature extensively in the license plate illustration. I created the detailing in the heron’s wing and the shading variations in the crab with the gradient tool. The license plate required four Pantone colors, so keeping the colors separate for trapping was crucial.

Photos from the Plate unveiling Event at the National Aquarium, Baltimore, Maryland