Amherst College is a prestigious, private liberal arts college founded in the Western Massachusetts town of Amherst in 1821. Amherst College took its name from the town and the town took its name from Lord Jeffery Amherst, a colonial-era military hero. However, through some recent revisionist history it came to light that Lord Jeffery Amherst, the commander of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War, may have supported the idea of dispensing blankets laced with the smallpox virus to Indians—an early example of biological warfare.
Given this information, Amherst College decided to drop their longtime unofficial mascot, “The Lord Jeffs” or just “The Jeffs,” and adopt a new official mascot. After a lengthy nomination process and a campus-wide vote the college adopted the prehistoric, and very extinct, mammoth as its new mascot. “The Mammoths” beat out finalists “The Hamsters,” an anagram of the word Amherst, and “The Poets,” a reference to the famous American poet Emily Dickinson who was born in the town of Amherst and studied at the Amherst Academy (precursor to Amherst College).
The winning mascot name, “Amherst Mammoths,” was inspired by a nearly perfect, skeletal specimen of a Columbian Mammoth, the second largest in the world, housed at Amherst’s renowned Beneski Museum of Natural History. Supporters of the new mammoth moniker also liked the fact that the Columbian Mammoth was an herbivore and thought to have been sociable, traveling with their families in herds, and rather docile in temperament. And the beast looks good in purple.
Pentagram was commissioned to design the new Amherst mammoth icon and to revamp the athletic and institutional identity systems for the college. Two versions of the mammoth mark were created, a full-figure version depicting the massive creature lumbering forward–determined but not too aggressive, and a version featuring just the mammoth’s head with its distinctive, supersized tusks.
Amherst College has the oldest athletic program in the nation, dating back to a compulsory physical fitness regimen that was put in place for all students in 1860. The new Amherst Mammoth proudly takes its place alongside other NCAA Division 3, New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) mascots including the Bowdoin College Polar Bear, the Tufts College Elephant, the Connecticut College Camel, the Trinity College Rooster, the Middlebury College Panther, the Colby College Mule and the Williams College Purple Cow.
In addition to the new mammoth marks, the Pentagram team created several alternate icons including a redesign of the college’s nearly 200 year-old academic seal that was affixed to the diplomas awarded to the graduates at Amherst College’s first commencement in the summer of 1825. The seal, which has been tweaked multiple times over the last two centuries, is composed in a double circle and features a sun radiating above the college’s Latin motto “Terras Irradient” (Let them enlighten the Lands). An open book, symbolizing learning and knowledge, completes the composition. Pentagram’s designers simplified the seal, originally complex and frilly–consistent with the style of heraldry when it was created, so it functions better in today’s small-use digital applications, but maintains the attractiveness and integrity of the historic academic crest.
The words “Sigill. Coll. Amherst. Mass. Nov. Ang. MDCCCXXV” which translates to “Seal of Amherst College, Massachusetts, New England, 1825.” is set in all-caps around the perimeter of the circular crest. The dated-looking Trajan, derided as “The Movie Poster Typeface” in typography circles, is updated with the identity system’s new primary typeface Tiempos, a contemporary Roman typeface designed by the Klim Type Foundry based in New Zealand, and the motto is set in the system’s new san serif typeface Setimo.
In addition to Tiempos and Setimo, typefaces primarily used for the revamped academic identity system, the Pentagram team introduced Soho, a sporty slab-serif used in all-caps, for athletics and spirit applications. Multiple logotypes and a variety of logo lockups keep the new identity system organized and easy to use but also flexible.
Two revised versions of the Amherst “A” (The Monogram) also set in Tiempos, a sunburst graphic element, an updated color palette, and new logos for Amherst’s four giving societies complete the identity tool kit. Get your tusks up!
