about me

About Design Turnpike

As a boy, I loved license plates. Six-hundred-mile trips were enlivened by keeping a list of the many diverse plates I saw on the road along the way. Family road trips to New Mexico, South Dakota, Florida, New Brunswick and many other destinations exposed me to the wealth of color, style and personality of each state's tag. A separate but genuine love for maps, geography and crafting grew to inspire the art you are viewing right now.

Design Turnpike began as a simple quest to recreate for myself a fascinating piece I saw at Greenfield Village outside of Detroit, Michigan: a map of the United States made from old license plates. It was during that learning process that a whim turned into a hobby and creative outlet. Along the way I realized I had my own wealth of original ideas for taking discarded license plates and immortalizing them in ways that could bring people years of enjoyment. In fact, a blue Michigan plate that adorned my first vehicle for 8 years lives on in one of the pieces in my personal collection.

Working from Dearborn, Michigan, the birthplace of the modern automobile, I continue to brainstorm and produce various new designs along with some of the classic license plate maps shown my home page gallery. I'm also interested in potential commissioned work. If you would like to discuss a custom project, please let me know!