This was a reference to Milton Glaser, the world-renowned graphic artist and creator of the iconic “I Love New York” logo, who had been drafted for the Rhode Island project and came up with the logo and the slogan.

In an interview on Tuesday, the governor acknowledged some blunders. “We didn’t do nearly enough public engagement before rolling out the campaign,” she said. Nor did they get “stakeholder engagement and buy-in” in advance. But she avoided answering the question of whether it was a mistake not to seek homegrown talent in the first place, especially from the estimable Rhode Island School of Design.

Mr. Glaser said in an interview that he felt that being from New York — or at least not being from Rhode Island — was held against him. But his biggest complaint was that the governor’s team had failed to lay the groundwork for the end product and provide context for it.

“People became crazed by the idea that they didn’t get it,” he said of the slogan. “If you rolled it out over weeks, you could have made a case for it. But in the absence of a real presentation, and the presence of so many mistakes, the whole thing became enshrouded in negativity. The social media thing is a killer.”

His thought behind the white sail logo was to give people a positive association with the Ocean State. “Billowing sails, pleasure, relaxation and optimism,” he said. The slogan “cooler and warmer,” he said, was meant to convey that people are doing cool things in Rhode Island and that they are warmer and friendlier than the frosty New England stereotype.