$1.5M used to help launch new North Carolina logo, slogan

RALEIGH - Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration has used $1.5 million to launch a new branding effort for state government this year, with a new state logo and a slogan that reads, “Nothing Compares.”

The legislature gave McCrory’s Department of Commerce money for the project, which began in 2014 with input from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, The News & Observer reports.

Commerce officials placed the slogan and logo, which features the letters “NC” in green and blue colors separated by a longleaf pine, on 75 highway billboards across North Carolina this summer.

Commerce Department Director of Strategic and Economic Development Communications Kim Genardo said the billboards were a cheap but highly visible way to debut the campaign.

“We want this to be a public-facing pride campaign for North Carolina,” Genardo said.

The logo will replace over 50 distinct logos used by state agencies.

“Every program and agency had a different logo,” Genardo said. “That’s not happening anymore.”

The logo’s green and blue colors were chosen to represent a “mountains-to-sea” theme, and the longleaf pine has been the official state tree for decades, officials said.

Genardo said McCrory started the rebranding effort shortly after he took office in 2013, and he often attended meetings about the project.

But not everyone’s a fan of the new look. The blog Brand New, which reviews corporate and government branding campaigns, criticized the “Nothing Compares” logo’s use of “clip art-ey” simple mountain and wave images and typography choices.

In the future, Genardo said the logo and slogan could be used on T-shirts and other promotional items.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback,” she said. “The sky’s the limit.”