A new Vermont tourism logo and branding was unveiled July 30, 2026. Provided Most Americans already like Vermont. The challenge is getting them to actually visit. State tourism officials hope a new logo and slogan, which they unveiled last week, will entice more people to book a trip by highl ighting Vermont’s landscape and its many local artists. The logo is a “Vermont” wordmark with hand-drawn letters shaped after Camel’s Hump and other geographic features, and the motto is “State of Inspiration.” It’s Vermont’s first-ever dedicated tourism brand, said Heather Pelham, commissioner of the state Department of Tourism and Marketing. Online mock-ups from the design agency that created the campaign, DNCO, show the logo and other new taglines — “Farm to table. We just call it dinner” and “Our rinks are all natural” — on advertisements on the New York City Subway and a street in Los Angeles. The state spent about $275,000 on the project, according to Pelham. “We can’t just expect tourism to happen to us. We need to continue to invest in it,” she said. Pelham said the project’s cost is the equivalent of 0.1% of the roughly $295 million in state and local taxes directly tied to tourist spending, according to a late 2025 report, which she thinks is “a small investment for a very large return.”  She also pointed to how the same report found that visitor spending accounts for 9% of Vermont’s gross domestic product, which is three times the national average among U.S. states. At the same time, a fresh brand was needed because the state found in a separate study that while 79% of U.S. travelers rate Vermont as an appealing destination, only 15% “spontaneously name it as a place they intend to visit,” according to the tourism department. It also trailed neighboring New England states in brand recognition, Vermont officials said. ‘It looks very Vermont-y’ Kellie Geldreich and Jason Hubbard, of Louisville, Colorado, were visiting Burlington on Friday with their two kids, 10-year-old Miles and 7-year-old Ada. The family’s decision to visit Vermont predated the new logo, but they gave it a positive review and said it aligned with how they think about the state.  “It kind of gives a Vermont vibe. It’s like, not buttoned-up,” Geldreich said, before Hubbard added, “It’s not Comic Sans, but it’s fun. It’s artsy.” Angie Shorey and Bob Oser live in Cambridge, Vermont, and were visiting Burlington on Friday for the city’s annual Festival of Fools. “I’m just seeing it for the first time, but it looks very Vermont-y,” Shorey said. “I like it.” The state unveiled a new Vermont logo and tourism branding campaign on July 30, 2026. Courtesy video The hand-drawn appearance of the “Vermont” wordmark is designed to pay homage to “the hand-painted signs found across the state’s roadsides, storefronts and farm stands,” according to the tourism department.  The letter “e” in the mark represents a winding road, the “m” is shaped after Camel’s Hump and the “o” is for a moon rising over the mountains, as in the well-known logo used by the state government.  Pelham said the new logo will not replace the “moon over mountains” mark and will only be used in marketing campaigns outside the state. In addition to the wordmark and slogan, the new brand also includes a set of icons depicting food, outdoor gear and other objects that are styled after the black-and-white roadside signs throughout the state directing drivers to local businesses.  Taken together, the new branding system does a good job evoking the ethos of local artists and makers, said Jess Gobble, an assistant professor of graphic design and visual communication at Burlington’s Champlain College. Gobble said the icons reminded her of block prints she has seen on display at a coffee shop in the city.  At the same time, she said in an interview, the branding is subtle enough that a viewer can also appreciate the sweeping landscape images that online mock-ups show behind them.  “So you have these great references, but they don’t detract from the overall imagery of Vermont, which I think is like a huge selling point for those who consider visiting,” Gobble said. Read the story on VTDigger here: Drawing attention: Vermont gets its first tourism branding. ...read more read less