Creating (literally) History in FL - ‘06 Edition

Before I get into this story, I guess it makes sense to first briefly introduce a few quick facts about myself;
- Recently turned 27 (even though I look 20, thanks Mom and Dad)
- Born in North Miami Beach
- I’ve been a Brand Identity Designer for about 7 years
- Lover of brunches, the Miami Heat, video games, and my fraternity (obviously, lol)
- As of today, I haven’t even been an Alpha for a full 2 years yet; which is why it’s crazy to me that I’m even writing this right now. I’m not a 20+ year member that has seen it all. I’m just a fairly recent initiate that somehow ran into a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop a project that will outlive me or anyone else reading this; an opportunity I made sure to maximize

Any graphic designer you meet has most likely worked on plenty of flyers, logos, websites, and more. Yes, some of us are clearly better than others but nonetheless we all work on the same types of projects 99% of the time. It takes a big stroke of timing, preparation, and God for us to actually land a project that only a handful of designers can claim they’ve worked on. That certainly happened to me. I mean, who just casually announces to the world they created a state license plate!? So that’s why I decided to elaborate in this blog on how exactly that ended up being me, and everything that went into the process of not only creating a state license plate for my beloved fraternity, but a license plate that everyone would LOVE.

In general, having specialty state license plates representing the Divine Nine is not uncommon. In plenty of other states, that is the case. Collectively, throughout the Florida Divine Nine, there had been a push for years to create this reality in the state. Being that Florida already has so many different specialty plates in existence for other causes, it is much harder here than in most states to put a new plate into production. Finally, in October of 2020, House Bill 1135 was passed allowing the Divine Nine to start their campaign towards making this goal a reality. I thank EVERYONE that was involved over the years in the process of getting this into legislation. The craziest thing for me is that this could have been accomplished 5 years ago, 10 years ago, even 15 years ago. All of which would have meant this opportunity would have landed in the hands of another designer, long before I ever became a member of Alpha. The stars truly aligned for me and it was not - and still isn’t - something that I take lightly. However, the state gave us one condition - The Divine Nine needed to sell a collective total of 3,000 pre-sale vouchers by October of 2022 to be officially granted these specialty plates. In the event we failed, the opportunity would never come again. Fair enough.

- HOW DID I END UP WITH THIS AMAZING TASK YOU MIGHT ASK?

FUN FACT - Although that bill was passed in October 2020, Alpha was one of the last of the organizations to produce a design. It wasn’t until February of 2021 that I was made aware of the situation, and we still had no tentative design made. By that point, the majority of the organizations had already produced a design and began actively promoting it within their respective networks. Again, this is another case of the stars seemingly aligning for me; you would think that within that 4 month stretch in which we had no design produced, that a brother somewhere would have reached out and volunteered to get it done. And yet, here we are. I certainly can’t tell this story without mentioning the man most responsible for getting my name in the door as the choice for this task; my LB John B. Riley, Jr. I don’t know many brothers that love the organization more than John. He is a true Alpha historian and owns probably every bit of nalia ever made (I’m not exaggerating either). He is well connected within the brotherhood, especially within our Florida district. It is no surprise that he knew long before I did that Alpha had no design created at the time. Even better, he was in direct contact with our District Director who coincidentally had just began his search for a graphic designer to make this happen (again, another case of the stars aligning). He urged me to submit a design as soon as I could.

- DEVELOPMENT & APPROVAL

What is probably most hilarious about this plate design is that for as monumental of a project that it is, it only took me about 20-25 minutes to complete. I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with the design before even starting, and each element has significance in its own way. As most fellow graphic designers can relate, before even opening my laptop my first task was to do my research. I wanted to see what the other Alpha plate designs looked like in other states. With the creative freedom that I had, I knew I definitely had room to produce something much more eye-catching. That is not a knock on whoever created those plates, seeing as how each state has its own regulations and standards to follow that may restrain a creative mind’s full potential. I lucked out when Florida told me to “do what I want”.

COLORS: It was a matter of choosing between creating a black plate with gold lettering vs a gold plate with black lettering. In my eyes, this was an easy choice.

SUBTLE BACKGROUND IMAGERY: I really wanted to throw some pizzazz on this design and not just settle for throwing “Alpha Phi Alpha” on a solid color plate and calling it complete. Anybody can do that. I hold myself to a higher standard than that. I wanted to throw some imagery/texture in the background that paid subtle tribute to Florida without still doing too much, and the natural choice was Palm Trees. You’ll also notice the subtle image of the Sphinx (the fraternity symbol) in the lower right corner. Like I said, I didn’t do too much but they made such a difference and are the difference between a good design and a great design.

FRATERNITY VERBIAGE: The easiest part of the plate. The fraternity name is highlighted at the bottom and it was actually our District Director’s idea to have “19” and “06” on opposite ends of the plate.

FOUNDERS: People thought I would put 7 stars. But I like to exceed expectations. How about slapping their faces on there, LOL


And just like that, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. officially had a tentative state license plate in Florida. It was approved by both my District Director and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, both of which had primarily been communicating with John and I via email. Now, it was time to make the announcement (my favorite part).

- RECEPTION / CURRENT PRE-SALE STATUS

I must say, while I knew that this move would get a lot of attention, the aftermath still exceeded my expectations. This news spread quickly, not just within Florida but within the Fraternity itself. One common (and funny) comment I always hear amongst brothers in other states is “Man I need to move to Florida just to get a plate!”. Even Alpha itself reposted the announcement on the national fraternity social media platforms via IG and Twitter. It has been very humbling to know how much people admire the design, and I am thankful that it gave my talents a chance to shine on a big stage. My brand has expanded in ways more than I could have ever imagined, and in the blink of an eye I went from a local talent to someone recognized on a national level. Perhaps my favorite part of it all is when the other Divine Nine members in Florida tell me that I should have made EVERY organization’s plate. As a creative in this situation, that is the ultimate compliment. I’m happy that I upheld what Alpha stands for in my own way. This is what we do, and that is set a standard for all others to follow. If you read this entire blog, I appreciate you and please share as well as comment below. As of today, there are 225 more pre-sale vouchers left to sell before the plates to go into production, which probably will occur in the New Year.


’06 to the good bruhs


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