So long, stick figure: SD57 unveils new logo

By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG

He’s studious, he’s controversial, and he’s been an enduring figure in the Prince George area for decades – in a word, he’s iconic.

He is the School District 57 stick figure.

After over fifty years of representing the students of SD57, the stick figure is being retired from his desk job and replaced with a brand-new logo from Monogram Communications.

The new logo is colourful, borrows symbolism from Dakelh culture, and represents natural features like the Fraser and Nechako rivers. It was designed after conducting a survey with nearly 1,300 respondents and having extensive discussions with staff, student and parent organizations, said Monogram’s Senior Communications Manager Kyla Graham.

“Everything from the brand story, to the look and feel and the colours and typography, was informed by the collective voices of the School District 57 communities,” Graham said. “School District 57 serves four different communities and three nations, and spans across three traditional territories. We wanted to ensure that it was something that was reflective of those voices.”

Graham said the design team heard that community members wanted elements from the district’s natural landscape, a nod to the cultural traditions of local First Nations, and a sense of youthfulness, among other features – a tall order, especially considering graphic designers need to keep logos clean, simple and easily recognizable.

In the age of artificial intelligence, Graham says Monogram values human-created, unique designs.

“It’s in our namesake – the name ‘Monogram’ is a reflection of ensuring that we are doing real personal work for each client,” she said.

Several people who work at the company have children in the school district, putting more personal investment into the process, Graham added. After months of consultation and reviewing hand-drawn drafts, she says she and her team are excited about the final product.

“We’re so thrilled with not just the design, but also the story it tells – it’s so meaningful, there’s so much symbolism in it,” she said. “With us being a local agency… it was a really special moment.”

Goodbye to “student at desk in box”

Prince George local and former social studies teacher Glenn Thielmann has a soft spot for the late ‘60s logo. 

Thielmann recalls the person in the logo – whom he refers to as “Student at Desk in Box,” – as being a polarizing figure throughout his 29 years of working for SD57. The subject of changing the logo was often brought up behind closed doors but only occasionally gained traction, he told The Goat.

In 2022 – the last time the board considered changing the logo – Thielmann wrote a post chronicling the logo’s history for journalist Andrew Kurjata’s Substack page, “Northern Capital News.”

In the post, Thielmann recalls the district’s former Director of Instruction saying it must be hard for students and parents to take talk of growth and transformation seriously when the district’s own logo puts students in a box.

“She thought we should break the little fellow out of the box,” Thielmann wrote.

Thielmann took her words to heart, illustrating different versions of the stick figure – enjoying birthday cake, climbing through a trapdoor, stockpiling toilet paper for the COVID-19 pandemic. He began using his creative interpretations of the logo on the letterhead for his communications with parents and students.

“When you’re dealing with a stick figure, it’s not too hard to recreate. Just get some lines and a circle and you’ve got the guy,” Thielmann said. “It’s pretty easy to make the fellow do some fun things.”

While Thielmann treated the logo as a blank canvas, its origins are much more unimaginative. 

“My dad actually told me this story. He was also a teacher in the school district for many years,” he said. “They sent some staff to a conference in the United States, and while they were there, someone came across that logo and thought, ‘Oh, this is cool.’”

“They brought a paper copy of it back and handed it to the draft person who made a clean version of it, and the rest is history.”

It’s not uncommon for school districts to rip off iconography from other organizations, he said, citing the Kelly Road secondary school and D.P. Todd secondary school mascots as examples.

Even Thielmann himself is guilty.

“The College Heights sports logo, which is a cougar, I actually ripped off from Columbus State University. Our cougar logo wasn’t all that intimidating,” he laughed. “Within a couple of years, they started putting it on signage – it was used all over the school.”

While the new logo is more original than the old one, Thielmann worries it misses the mark in some ways. 

“They tried to do a lot – they want to represent community, culture, history, values, students, learning. You can’t do all those things unless you have a really complicated logo,” he said.

Still, Thielmann said he looks forward to watching the district update its websites and physical signs with the new logo.

“Congratulations to the district for finally moving on this,” he said. “I’m encouraged, and there’s always more to do.”