The new Utah 2034 branding has been controversial; almost too easy to hate.

But instead of repeating the surface-level discourse, I wanted to explore the part that’s actually interesting: the deliberate decision to sacrifice immediate readability in favor of dynamic symbolic legibility.

There’s a mentioning of design in juxtaposition to the economy & technology in Kenya Hara’s Book on Designing Design. Its peculiar statement perfectly describes the sentiment of many business stakeholders about design today. Kenya Hara mentions that – Design hasn’t always been in the role of a servant to the economy & technology sector, which I’d feel is an adequate description of many of us designers.

Following the thoughts of Designer Kenya Hara, my approach is often about looking deeper into things, I consider it design and not just a part of a design process. The notion of looking deeper into things is in itself design.