Plum Beach Lighthouse Earns Award Nomination

Have you ever judged license plate designs based on aesthetics or artistic merit? The members of the American License Plate Collectors Association consider it their business to do just that. Fittingly, they’ve chosen our locally-designed Plum Beach Lighthouse license plate.

The plate was designed by a committee of artists associated with the deed-holders to the historic and recently restored lighthouse in North Kingstown. To date, over 3,650 plates have been delivered and plate sales have raised more than $72,000 to be used for continuous maintenance on the landmark lighthouse.

When the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse decided sell license plates to generate funds, Friends’ president David Zapatka began by basing the design on a pen and ink drawing created by fellow member Bruce Martin. From there, Zapatka and his son Cory, a Rhode Island School of Design student, used Photoshop to incorporate some color. The array of colors used was lifted directly from an actual photo of the lighthouse taken by Cory at sunset.

At that point, the design was handed over to professionals. Friends member and graphic illustrator Catherine Chapin helped to compile the design and colors together before giving it to graphic designer Dana Gee for completion, which was no easy task.

“Dana really pulled everything together in the end,” Zapatka said. “She took all of the print designs, including the final one that we did and it wasn’t quite right, and she married that all together. She gave her time to do that. It came out better than we ever could have expected. Without her, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.”

Zapatka is thrilled with the nomination. He also sees it as a way to keep the plate in the spotlight and continue generating sales.

“It’s been over two years of hard work for our group to get to this point and everyone who has bought the plates and placed them on their cars say they love them,” he said. “This nomination is the icing on the cake and confirms what everyone has said about them.”

Bruce Martin, the pen and ink artist behind the original design, takes a special satisfaction in seeing so many of the plates on cars around the state. His wife Ellie refers to them as “Bruce plates” and counts them wherever they go. Last weekend, she counted 11 in the parking lot at in Quonset Point. Although he is honored by his role in the award nomination, he maintains that the most important thing is the continued awareness of the lighthouse itself.

“It’s just such a nice feeling to see all out there, supporting the lighthouse,” he said. “That’s why I got involved in the first place.”

The PBL Plates are still available through the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse and applications are available at www.pblplate.org  The plates sell for $41.50 per set of two and $20 from each goes directly into the lighthouse maintenance fund of the non-profit group. Of note, unlike other specialty plates available, there are no additional ongoing charges after the initial sale. It takes about four to six weeks to get the plates once the group has received the application.  The vote on the best plate ended March 4 and the collectors group will announce the in the first week of April. Click to http://www.alpca.org/bestplate/2010/ to see the Plum Beach Lighthouse plate as well as the other eleven nominees up for the award.