Coat of Arms/Logo
The University of Calgary combines the best of long-established University traditions with Calgary's frontier spirit of originality and innovation.
Our logo was designed to reflect that spirit. The logo has two components: the Coat of Arms (including the escroll with our motto) and the wordmark. The coat of arms represents and respects our historical roots while the more contemporary wordmark reflects our focus on the future and leading edge.
The Coat of Arms consists of a shield, an escroll containing the motto and the wordmark in either a horizontal (with the wordmark to the right of the crest) or vertical (with the wordmark below the crest) format.
The shield consists of two parts, the upper part (the chief) separated from the lower (the base) by an arched line symbolizing the Chinook arch. The ground colour of the chief is scarlet, commemorating the North West Mounted Police under whose influence Western Canada was settled. Upon this colour is a pair of open books bound in gold. Between the books is a white rose, symbolic of Alberta. The ground colour of the base is gold, indicative of golden sunshine or golden grain. Upon this is a black bull's head with red horns and crossed staves bearing red flags, reminiscent of the family crest of Lt. Col. J.F. Macleod, the NWMP officer who founded Fort Calgary.
Below the shield, printed on an escroll, is the university's motto, "Mo shuile togam suas" (translated as "I will lift up my eyes"), rendered in Gaelic uncial letters. The scroll is white; the draped ends are red. They were granted to U of C in 1966 by Lord Lyon King of Arms at Edinburgh.
Official Colours
The university has three official colours that appear in the Coat of Arms.
Red PMS 485; Gold PMS 116 and Black.
Tartan
The University has an official tartan that incorporates the U of C's official colours of red, black and gold in its design. It was designed by Jim Odell, a U of C Education and Fine Arts graduate and accredited in a ceremony presided over by Duncan Paisley of Westerlea, President of the Scottish Tartans Society and director of the Register of All Publicly Known Tartans.