Do You Know Where the CSDE Logo Comes From?

Posted: 8/13/2019 (CSDE Research)

The CSDE logo, designed by Marvin Oliver, features a male and female salmon. The pairing signifies fertility, migration, and mortality—three core subjects of demography. CSDE recently heard from Pete Guest, formed CSDE Director, about the origins of our intricate logo, here’s what we learned:

“In the mid-1990s, I was the interim director of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. I was inspired to find a young Native American artist, Marvin Oliver, to make a logo for us. Oliver was a student of Bill Holm, perhaps the foremost “native” artist in Canada.

The logo was mainly done by Marvin (at the time, largely unknown), but I made some contributions. What it shows is the “cycle of life” through the salmon. The salmon are divided by gender, and the red salmon egg has been implanted by the male into the female. The circle represents the cycle of life, from birth to death, but may also be interpreted as showing the migration cycle of the salmon.”

Avery (Pete) Guest
Professor Emeritus
Department of Sociology
University of Washington