It's been too long since UnBeige was riding high in the spotlight of license plate design news, back in those glory days of 2008 when we were reporting on all of the excitement and appearing on things like the Plate Show. But finally we are able to return to form with the news that the state of Nebraska has decided to try and capture some of the same bizarre excitement that came out of Texas last year with their own "vote on your new license plate" contest. They've rolled out four new designs this week and have opened up voting through the state's motor vehicles division that will tally the top picks from now until the middle of the month, at which point a winner will be crowned and start appearing in 2011. Personally, although we have a special kinship with the state of Nebraska, even enjoying their cute unicameral government, we have to say that we're not a bit fan of any of the selections, so we apologize for any Nebraskans who read UnBeige and look to us to make their difficult decisions for them. Though we can at least slim down the selection process a little for you by saying how much we hate the truly terrible, black and white ramped, second pick (shown to the right), which we are not alone in hating, according to the Omaha World-Herald:

"I actually gagged when I saw it," said Omaha artist Scott Blake. "Man, that's just terrible." [printmaker Joey Lynch] didn't give it much love either. "It's very Photoshop from 1996," he said. What if this design wins and is the official plate from 2011 through 2017? "I'd have to move to Pottawattamie County and register my cars there," said Drew Davies, owner and design director of Omaha's Oxide Design Co.

We agree that it's terrible, but we think the people of Pottawattamie County need an apology for this thinly-veiled "my county is better than your county" insult.