Utah’s 2034 Winter Games logo gets a thumbs-down both within the state and nationally, the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found.
More than half of Utahns, 57%, said they don’t approve of the unusual design, intended to reflect Utah’s landscapes and history, but compared by critics to something out of a “Flintstones” cartoon. Just over a third, 37%, approved and 5% didn’t know how they felt.
Nationally, the numbers were similarly split, with 49% disapproving the “Utah 2034″ logo unveiled last November on a massive installation at the Salt Lake City International Airport, and 39% approving it. There were more “don’t knows” in the U.S. poll, 12%.
Both polls were conducted by Morning Consult for the Salt Lake City-based Deseret News and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.
In Utah, 769 registered voters were polled Feb. 11-14 and nationally, 2,002 registered voters were polled Feb. 10-13. The Utah poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%, and the national poll, plus or minus 2%.
The results come after many complaints have been posted on social media, including that the abstract letters and numbers are difficult to read. Even Utah Gov. Spencer Cox suggested the logo is too “bold” for his conservative tastes.
But Utah’s Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games hasn’t wavered in its support for the new look.
“With logos, you have to give them time to see how they settle in with the population,” said Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, calling the poll results “a little bit of an improvement” over an informal survey done after the introduction.
What can change minds, he suggested, is seeing the context for the design.
A video highlighting how “every bend, loop and curve” of the logo was inspired by Utah’s mountain formations, street grids and other elements, including patterns made by skiers and skaters, has nearly 237,000 views on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The long string of comments on the video, however, are almost all negative.
The logo, technically a text-based wordmark, is considered transitional and is set to be modified or replaced in 2029. Utah organizers don’t have any marketing rights until after the 2028 Summer Games in another U.S. city, Los Angeles, are over.
Even though the controversial logo could be changed at any time, Bullock said that’s not going to happen until 2029 as part of a larger effort to create an overall brand identity for the Winter Games.
“No. We’re focused on all of the other work that we’re deeply engaged in. We’ll have a lot of work to do to do our launch,” he said of how Utah’s second Winter Games will be seen by the world through 2034.
In the meantime, the organizing committee is sporting black and white hats, pullovers and other merchandise with the new logo that’s for sale online. Bullock remains hopeful that the public will come to appreciate the logo and what it represents.
“We have the next 2½ years to see the acceptance rate,” he said. “We’ll see how it ages.”