Over 700 Sign Open Letter Asking Governor Burgum to Restore North Dakota Old “Legendary” Logo

Earlier this month Governor Doug Burgum’s office announced the completion of a “refresh” of North Dakota’s brand identity.

“To refresh North Dakota’s brand for today’s audiences, adjustments were made to the tagline from Legendary to Be Legendary,” Burgum’s office said in a statement. “The new design will keep parts of the visual elements from the current identity while creating a refresh with an updated color palette and a new font system.”

You can see the new logo above. I’ll admit, it’s not terribly inspiring. Also, the tag line for the state went from simply “Legendary” to “Be Legendary.”

I’m underwhelmed. Here’s the old logo for the sake of comparison:

Anyway, now a group of more than 700 North Dakotans are pushing back on the change. They want the old logo restored, and a better process implemented for the brand refresh.

You can read their open letter below. “While it was certainly time for a brand refresh, spending less than $10,000 on a logo that will be the face of our state for more than a decade to come is a massive misstep,” it states. “For a project estimated to cost upwards of $50,000,000 over the next 15 years — as with our previous brand — investing this little in its focal point is nearly unbelievable.”

That kind of makes it sound like they think the Governor didn’t spend enough money. Which isn’t a very persuasive argument, as far as I’m concerned. But they’re also saying that the logo just isn’t very good.

“This mark does nothing to help represent North Dakota attractively to outside talent; nor does it well represent our communities here today,” the letter continues. “It is an uninspired leap backwards that forecasts a dour future if this is the symbolic direction our state decides to take.”

The letter goes on to demand that more time and effort be put into the rebrand. But, of course, that also means more expense. At a time when the state’s budgets have been pretty tight.

Here’s the full letter:

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