Residents, City Officials Rebrand Bluffdale

By Tori La Rue | [email protected]

For years, Maverik has been the only retail in the Bluffdale, and the city’s been known as the only one left in the Salt Lake County where it’s in the norm for residents to have full-acre lots and raise chickens and horses, according to Natalie Hall, Bluffdale’s marketing manager, but that’s changing. 

The growth of the master-planned Independence at the Point community, which is full of apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes, and the building of a Smith’s Marketplace by Bangerter Highway is the start of a new era for Bluffdale.  

“We are a growing community that is willing to change but one that really values our roots and our past and our unique qualities,” Hall said. “We value our uniqueness, but we really do want to move forward building a stronger city that can pull in new residents and strengthen our economic development.”

With the city’s vision shifting more toward economic development, city staff decided to rebrand the city, creating new website, logo and tagline. The website is still being developed, but the logo and tagline are ready to use. 

The new logo combines a modern-looking font with a shadow of a horse head, to synthesize the “New and the old Bluffdale,” Hall said. The city’s new tagline “Life Connected” represents the merging of Bluffdale’s rural feel with their new economic development, the deep connection Bluffdale residents feel toward their neighbors, Bluffdale’s quick access to Bangerter Highway and I-15 and Bluffdale’s unique quality of straddling the county line—it connects Salt Lake County and Utah County. 

“The tagline’s really all-encompassing,” Hall said. 

To create the tagline and logo, Bluffdale hired a company to survey the residents, business owners and staff on their perceptions of the city. They started the survey process using focus groups, which included member of the city council, residents and business owners.

“We talked about our assets and our benefits of living here, and they’d ask us to pick words to describe how we feel about Bluffdale,” Jenette Andrews, a focus group member, said. “They asked us what colors reminded us of Bluffdale, who we felt lived here and why they lived here, and they asked us about our lifestyles.” 

From their answers, the surveying company created emotional maps that they took back to the group for more critique. After multiple revisions, they determined that Bluffdale residents loved Bluffdale for the quality of life, family feel, friendly community, location, open space, rural feel, variety of lot sizes and Old West Days, Hall said. 

A survey was developed from these values, and 244 residents took it, claiming that they wanted a brand that was “approachable, casual, warm, mix of heritage and opportunity and simple,” according to Hall. City Officials formed a branding committee consisting of stakeholders, staff, residents, business owners and council members who selected two possible logos for the city. 

A final survey was given to residents via social media. More than 280 residents participated and chose the new logo.

“I really like it. I like the simplicity, and it looks fresher and a little more current,” Andrews said comparing the new logo with the old one. 

Andrews, a graphic designer, unexpectedly created the old city logo about 30 years ago when she gave the city a T-shirt design she had created for a city celebration. The logo consisted of two little kids, a horse, a giant ribbon and the city’s name. 

“I never intended it to be a city symbol,” Andrews said. “I got married and moved away, and I came back and saw it on the city signs and trucks. Had I known it would be applied so many different ways, I would have created it differently.” 

Andrews moved back to Bluffdale 19 years ago. She said there’s nowhere else in Salt Lake County that felt like home. 

As a thank you for creating the first city logo, Mayor Derk Timothy invited Andrews, to be part of the focus groups for the new logo. Timothy thought Andrews might be offended the city wanted to change the logo, but Andrews said she was ready for a change. 

“I felt like it was an honor to see the whole process and to find an outcome that came together quickly,” Andrews said. “I hope other people agree and are happy with it, too.”