Could a state icon bring more attention to North Dakota?

BISMARCK — A

state icon

could help North Dakota promote itself to the rest of the country and possibly bring in more visitors, a tourism leader says.

More than 5,200 people have voted for one of two state icons that could represent the Peace Garden State. Voting began last week and runs through the end of the month.

Voters who go to

surveymonkey.com/r/StateIconPress

can choose between two options: a circular icon that features an American bison in the Badlands or a sunset icon inside the letters ND.

The results could be revealed as early as mid-March, North Dakota Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman told The Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The state icon will help North Dakota promote itself to potential visitors, she said.

“We not only wanted to help educate and raise awareness for the state, but we also really wanted to create some in-state pride and have it be something that people would want to buy and wear and tout,” she said.

The state icon will complement the state’s

“Be Legendary”

brand, Coleman said. North Dakota changed its logo in 2018 as a way to bring its 57 brands under one unifying logo.

The rebrand attracted criticism and controversy. The state changed its longtime black-and-white logo and “Legendary” slogan, opting for a simpler font with color.

Lawmakers and others questioned why

North Dakota didn’t bid out the logo project.

Instead, the state hired Kara Ellefson, a longtime marketing executive at Great Plains Software from Hawley, Minnesota, for $9,500 to create the logo. Then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum knew Ellefson — he was the CEO of Great Plains before he sold it to Microsoft in 2001.

The threshold for bidding a North Dakota project is $10,000, meaning the transaction was legal. The governor’s office said Burgum did not suggest Ellefson for the project.

The North Dakota Department of Commerce asked for bids to design the state icon, Coleman said. Four companies submitted proposals, and The Good Kids, a design studio in Bismarck, won with a bid of about $23,000, she said.

Other states have icons, like Minnesota’s blue and green “MN.” Some states have multiple symbols, Coleman noted.

There could be tweaks to the proposed icons before a final one is announced, she said.

“This is something to build on,” she said. “It’s not the do-all, end-all. … It’s just kind of a fun marketing metric.”

North Dakota has used different visuals in the past to promote the state, including the pioneer logo used for the Centennial Celebration in 1989 and imagery of Lewis and Clark.

The state proposed themes to include in the icon designs, Coleman said. People praise the state’s “beautiful sunsets, landscapes and blue skies,” she said.

State tourism leaders also encouraged “ND” to be a part of the logo, she said.

“I think they’re fun,” she said of the proposed icons. “I’m excited about them. I think either one of them could work well.”

The state has limited recognition in the U.S., Coleman noted. A 2022 study showed that only 22% of respondents were familiar with North Dakota, according to the request for proposals that sought bids for the icon. North Dakota is largely seen as a flyover state with few attractions.

North Dakota Tourism expanded advertising in recent years. TV promotions used Minot native and actor

Josh Duhamel

to highlight attractions like Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It seems to have paid off. About 3.6 million people visited the state tourism website last year, up 30% from 2023, she said. Several visitor metrics, such as the number of people flying into the state and Canadian border crossings into North Dakota, were up about 10% each last year, she said.

Other metrics, including hotel occupancy rates and Theodore Roosevelt National Park visits, remained flat, Coleman noted.

“We’ve had great results with the work that we do, considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the country,” she said.

North Dakota has in the past underfunded its marketing budget, Coleman said, but it is making progress in telling its story.

“Hopefully, next time we do that national survey, we will show a higher number than 22%,” she said.

The survey doesn’t have a comment section, but input on the icons can be sent to

tourism@nd.gov.