Is it just me, or does pretty much everyone hate the new Vermont vehicle Inspection stickers?
I just had my Mini Cooper inspected and the dealer actually apologized for having to put the sticker on my cute little car. They are just painfully, undisputedly ugly.
Somehow, our classy inspection stickers migrated from the center of our windshields, hidden behind our rearview mirrors, to the lower left of our windshields, right where we can be reminded of how unsightly they are every time we get behind the wheel.
The old ones had style — square with the month in the middle, changing colors so people could tell which one was valid and which one is expired.
The new ones are bright yellow, directly in our field of view, and have the style of IRS notifications. They lack any type of graphic design. Their only beauty is one that a bureaucrat could appreciate — pure function.
Here is a quote printed in Vermont Business Magazine from Dick Mazza, a Vermont state senator who is very proud that the ugly things can be printed on demand and put directly in every Vermonter’s view: “The on-demand stickers will enable Vermont businesses to do this important work in a more streamlined and cost-efficient manner.”
Yawn. Please, Sen. Mazza, add a touch of class to our vehicles. Get a graphic designer to draw up a new, attractive “print on demand” sticker and put it back where it was — centered, visible and out of the driver’s field of view.
Douglas Friant
South Londonderry
