Favorite state route shields?

[national highway 1]

Hi everyone,
I find it great that different states have different shaped shields for each state. Compared to the default blue shield we have in Australia, I do like the variety of shields all over the US (apart from the Circle states and the Square states across New England and the Central US), but here are a few of my favorites.

California- I do like the fact the spade is green (my favorite color) and how it is different to the Interstate and US Shields. I also do like the wide variant for 3 digit shields Great job for introducing the green spade in 1964!

Colorado- I like the colorful state flag across the top of the shield, and also the square shield needs no changes in dimensions for 3 digits. A Lone Star equivalent for Texas would be good in improving its various SH shields.

Idaho- I do like the white-on-black contrast for its SH shields and also the fact the number is outside the state outline.

Minnesota- I do like the blue and gold color scheme. But when were the shields with gold digits phased out? Also worth noting is the 'Star' Shields similar to early Texas shields and 'Kite' Shields. Does anyone know when these were around?

New Mexico-I do like the zia, but NM needs to have a more consistent approach to signage in whole with consistent fonts and shield sizes and not putting 'Denver 439' before 'US 550 (in both text and shield)' in Bernalillo. There needs to be a 3 digit oval shield with the zia and also the zia needs to included on BGSes like here (currently a black bordered circle/oval). The latter is actually possible on Kurumi SignMaker.

New York- I like how unique their shape is, that it is a simplified version of their state seal.

North Dakota- The 'Young Face' is definitely an awesome shape.

South Dakota- I do like the green square outside the state outline, and 3 digits (and 1804 and 1806) are easy to make by just simply stretching the state outline. Earlier versions had Mount Rushmore on them. Does anyone know when they were around?

Utah- Loving the new 'compromise' shields bring put up by UDOT. Here is an example:

Vermont- like the state name and number placards for each. The green shields are probably referring to the origin of Vermont's name from the French for 'green mountains'.

Wisconsin-like the rectangle-with-triangle shape, which needs a roadgeek name. I know that it used to be just a triangle, then the rectangle was added later. Another awesome shape, too.

Wyoming-the fact that the shields are yellow highly constrast with the winter snow. The three digit wide variant isn't bad either.


What are your favorite state highway shields?

[Scott5114]

I've always been rather partial to the Kansas shield–the gold color is eye-catching and it's a simple shape that works well and doesn't interfere with the numbers.

I like Oklahoma's as well but that's just because it's better than the circle we had before and it's unique (the only state with a shield close to it is Florida).

[Takumi]

California, Florida, Kansas, and New Mexico. Virginia's primary shield just looks like a simplified version of the US route shield.

[mcdonaat]

Me? I really like Louisiana's shield design. It's very clean and easy to see at night, plus the different fonts are used in different situations.

[bugo]

I've always liked New York and Wisconsin.  I like most of the state outline shields, the Kansas sunflower, the North Dakota Indian, and the BIA arrowhead (not really a state highway, but cool.)  My least favorites are the squares.  The circles aren't too bad but too many states use them. 

[nexus73]

The original Oregon cutout with the eagle is my favorite.  California's spade shield comes in 2nd.  I rather like Hawai'i's as well.  Guess I'll have to drive over there some day to see them in person...LOL!

Honorable mention: The Kansas sunflower shield.

Rick

[oscar]

Alaska's, hands down.

I think Hawaii's teardrop route markers are functional but really no better than middle of the pack.  They do remind tourists of a fact not prominent in the tourist brochures, that in parts of Hawaii it rains a lot (a spot on Kauai is the wettest place on earth, and AFAIK Hilo is the rainiest city in the U.S.).

[huskeroadgeek]

My favorites are anything with color in them other than the traditional black and white. I also like the state shape ones because they are instantly recognizable. I'm also partial to my homestate's sign because of its uniqueness.

[SP Cook]

The state outlines that work are nice.  Ohio, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona.  Other states that use the state outline are not shaped in a way that work well with the numbers.

New Mexico's used of the Zia symbol is good.

The states with unique symbols that clearly identify the state.  Pennsylvania, Washington, Kansas.



I like the way Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas use unique signs for toll roads.  Should be required of all states.

[mjb2002]

I love North Carolina's highway shields - they are very simple.

[Takumi]

^ I like the cutout version better, with the interlocking NC that distinguished it more from the Michigan shield.

[Brandon]

I love North Carolina's highway shields - they are very simple.

A little too rounded for me, and they'd be better with the "NC" at the top.  Personally, I like Michigan's.  Simple, elegant, legible, and different than other states nearby.  Wisconsin's are good too, IMHO.  Others I like include Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Hawai'i, Alaska, and California.

Illinois and Indiana are scraping the bottom of the barrel with their squares.  Others I dislike include Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey (do we really need more flipping circles?), Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut (how the hell can you tell which state you just entered?).  I'm not that fond of the state shape ones as many (Georgia, Alabama) distort the state shape so it becomes unrecognizable, or it's a square with a state placed on it (Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida).  A square is still a square even with a state silk screened onto it.

[Scott5114]

The state outlines that work are nice.  Ohio, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona.  Other states that use the state outline are not shaped in a way that work well with the numbers.

SD arguably works well.

[bugo]

The state outlines that work are nice.  Ohio, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona.  Other states that use the state outline are not shaped in a way that work well with the numbers.

SD arguably works well.

South Dakota is one of my favorites, with the green background and black letters.  Both Dakotas have excellent route markers.

I've seen North Dakota Indian head signs on BGSs with "ND" in the top of the shield.  There's one on I-94, for ND 1 IIRC.

[mgk920]

I've never liked the ones where the design aspects of the sign take up so much space or they are laid out in such an awkward manner that the numbers have to be made smaller than they should be - 'KISS' is always the best policy, IMHO.  Bad examples in this respect include Michigan, Colorado (although these are not as bad as they could have been), Washington (especially), North Carolina, Utah, etc.  A special 'dishonorable mention' for the MUTCD 'county' pentagon here.  I have a thing against simple squares and circles, too, some of which can easily be confused by out-of-staters for other types of signage (ie, the Illinois signs for speed limit signs).  I also don't like signs that are too 'busy' and colorful - I still remember my first-ever drive-it-myself trip to the MStP area, I was confusing Minnesota's state signs for interstate shields, having never seen Minnesota's signs before.

For that reason, I have always loved the shields in my home state of Wisconsin (ditto the state's county signs) and I also like the ones in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri (number), New York, California, Arizona, Georgia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Carolina, Oregon, New Hampshire, etc.

Mike

[cpzilliacus]

I've never liked the ones where the design aspects of the sign take up so much space or they are laid out in such an awkward manner that the numbers have to be made smaller than they should be - 'KISS' is always the best policy, IMHO.  Bad examples in this respect include Michigan, Colorado (although these are not as bad as they could have been), Washington (especially), North Carolina, Utah, etc.  A special 'dishonorable mention' for the MUTCD 'county' pentagon here.  I have a thing against simple squares and circles, too, some of which can easily be confused by out-of-staters for other types of signage (ie, the Illinois signs for speed limit signs).  I also don't like signs that are too 'busy' and colorful - I still remember my first-ever drive-it-myself trip to the MStP area, I was confusing Minnesota's state signs for interstate shields, having never seen Minnesota's signs before.

My favorites: 

• Virginia's primary highway shield - it's simple and dignified, and not duplicated (directly) elsewhere - cutouts better, of course.
• North Carolina has a distinct and dignified one as well, and not duplicated (exactly) in other states.
• Michigan is similar to the Tar Heel State, but the M adds some distinctiveness.
• The new-style South Carolina shield is nice, though I wonder if the blue is going to fade-out quickly?
• Ontario's crown on its BGS panels is distinctive, and reminds us that Her Majesty the Queen is the head of state of Canada - and the "classic" Ontario shield gets points for the crown and dignity (though I do not like the Highway 407 shield (great highway, lousy shield)).
• Quebec's Autoroute shield is attractive.
• California's green spade is also distinctive and diginifed.
• New York's is also distinctive and dignified - extra points for the Thruway system having its own distinctive shield.
• The nations of the European Union don't have distinctive shields in general, but I like the white-on-green E-route shield anyway, even though it's a rectangle or square.

Ones I don't care for:

• Pennsylvania's Keystone.  Yes, it's the Keystone State, but it's far too "in-your-face."
• All states (like New Jersey) with a round shield (though I love the New Jersey Turnpike's Shield).
• All states (like West Virginia) with generic rectangles or squares.

[Ian]

My top 5...
-New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain design
-Quebec's Autoroute shield
-Ontario's Kings Highway shield
-Montana's arrowhead shield for the secondary highways
-South Carolina's new blue shield

[NYYPhil777]

My top favorites...
1. The new South Carolina shields
2. Tennessee
3. Louisiana
4. Georgia
5. South Dakota

[Scott5114]

I don't care for the new SC shield...while the design is fine, having all shields be 30x24 is poor form. (I think TN is the only other state that specifies "wide shield at all times".) It especially looks ridiculous on one-digit routes, with vast swaths of white space on either side of the number just because the design dictates that must be so.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Colorado- I like the colorful state flag across the top of the shield, and also the square shield needs no changes in dimensions for 3 digits. A Lone Star equivalent for Texas would be good in improving its various SH shields.


Minnesota- I do like the blue and gold color scheme. But when were the shields with gold digits phased out? Also worth noting is the 'Star' Shields similar to early Texas shields and 'Kite' Shields. Does anyone know when these were around?

New Mexico-I do like the zia, but NM needs to have a more consistent approach to signage in whole with consistent fonts and shield sizes and not putting 'Denver 439' before 'US 550 (in both text and shield)' in Bernalillo. There needs to be a 3 digit oval shield with the zia and also the zia needs to included on BGSes like here (currently a black bordered circle/oval). The latter is actually possible on Kurumi SignMaker.

My issue with Colorado's sign design is the aspect ratio that results from cutting the top half off the square with the state flag. Numbers just don't display well within this wide rectangle, especially short numbers. I like the design that Matt Salek proposes on his Colorado Highways web site http://www.mesalek.com/colo/marker.html (bottom of page), based on the current license plate (though I would use the dark green numbering like the license).

Minnesota's use of gold numbers, I think, was limited to the initial round of signs; that design was introduced in 1968. By the 1980s, new signs had white numbers. The star design was used from 1920, with a change in background color from yellow to white along the way, until about 1954. In the interim, they used a plain black on white sign kind of like Maryland, with the state name in a small rectangle at the top. The "kite" sign that I saw layouts for on the sign gallery was only used for county markers in the early days, I believe; it was never used for marking trunk highways.

I think New Mexico's is simple and representative. South-facing signs tend to lose the red zia within a few years. I kind of prefer the pre-1988 layout to the wider zia used more recently, but would not use a rectangular representation for three digits. I agree, I would design the guide sign usage to display the zia instead of a plain circle/ellipse. Putting cities out of sequence on median-mounted distance signs in Albuquerque is the least of the signage sins NMDOT commits.

[colinstu]

I like simple shields that are black and white.

My favs though are: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York.

I don't like Utah's because the sentiment behind it, and Texas has too many signs. Signs with color I'm also not a fan of (Minnesota and Colorado being at the top of my do-not-like list).

[SP Cook]

My favorites: 

• Ontario's crown on its BGS panels is distinctive, and reminds us that Her Majesty the Queen is the head of state of Canada - and the "classic" Ontario shield gets points for the crown and dignity (though I do not like the Highway 407 shield (great highway, lousy shield)).
• Quebec's Autoroute shield is attractive.

Since you brought Canada into the mix, Ontario's BGS symbol is great, like Pennsylvania, it is a distinctive representation of the jurisdiction's status.  I also like New Brunswick, which well fits into the appropriate jurisdiction outline system.  Quebec's autoroutes, a fusion of the wannabe Euro autobahn symbol and the wannabe American interstate shield, is exempliary of Quebec politics, but is really OK.  The rest of Canada seems too gimmicky to me.

[national highway 1]

I like Oklahoma's as well but that's just because it's better than the circle we had before and it's unique (the only state with a shield close to it is Florida).

They are both similar to the DC shield as well.

[Scott5114]

I don't like Utah's because the sentiment behind it

???

I'm guessing it has something to do with the Mormon church? Or do you just hate bees that much?

[colinstu]

You guessed it, I really don't like bees. ;p Just kidding, I'm just not a fan of that church... it's subjective, but so are all the opinions in this thread.

Also... Regardless of the church... It's like wisconsin having a silouhette of a slice of cheese or Texas being a cowboy hat. Something more geometric is what I like.