TULSA, Okla. — Wednesday's debut of the new Oklahoma re-brand was met with mixed opinions from KRMG listeners.

Oklahoma Lt. -Gov Matt Pinnell joined the KRMG Morning News today, trying to clear the air on how they chose the new look.

Lt. -Gov. Pinnell tells KRMG it was important to choose something that would attract people to the state saying:

“We wanted something that had a little swagger to it. We wanted to tap into the surprise, but also the emotional component of the American Dream still lives in Oklahoma!”

Pinnell goes on to say it was a long process deciding on the new logo and slogan.

“Usually you just go out and pay a firm millions and millions of dollars and they tell you what your brand is. That would have been a whole lot quicker, but we wanted to do things different. We had 9 different sub-committees, visual ID, verbal ID... 30 to 40 creatives working on a logo, 30 to 40 people working on the tagline. There were thousands of taglines. A lot of them very generic. We narrowed them down. We had a top ten list, then a top five list and we really liked [the slogan]. We know some people aren’t going to like it, but we had nothing before. This is a major upgrade.”

Pinnell says the main focus of the new slogan and logo was to advertise Oklahoma to other states, and even countries.

He says they designed the look of the logo to have many colors to coincide with the seasons in Oklahoma, of which there are many.

Something a person from a state like California or Florida may be looking for on their next vacation, or even a new home.

“We wanted the logo to be colorful because we have 12 different ecosystems in Oklahoma, imagine that. All of the seasons you can have. That’s a big draw for people. They love you can see it all and do it all in the State of Oklahoma.”

You can listen and watch the full interview with Lt. -Gov. Matt Pinnell here: