Design Turnpike

David Bowman creates handmade license plate art and maps under the name Design Turnpike.

As a boy, David loved license plates. Road trips were enlivened by keeping a tally list of the many diverse plates he saw on the road along the way. Family vacations to New Mexico, South Dakota, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, New Brunswick Canada and many other destinations exposed him to the wealth of color, style and personality of each state’s tag. His interest in maps, geography, travel and crafting grew to inspire the art you are viewing right now. In fact, a blue Michigan plate that adorned his first vehicle in 1998 lives on in one of the pieces in his personal collection.

Working from Dearborn, Michigan, the birthplace of the modern automobile, he continues to brainstorm and produce various new designs along with his classic license plate maps. He counts nationally recognized sports figures, corporate executives and hundreds of various business professionals around the world as collectors of his originals.