Robert Gordon University university's coat of arms). The coat of arms of the university is inset into the head of the mace, along with golden symbols taken from it - the castle representing the city of Aberdeen, flaming torch, coin, and mechanical cog. The shaft of the mace is inlaid in gold with the university's motto, "Omni Nunc Arte Magistra". Like most Scottish universities, RGU has its own tartan; it mirrors the university's official colours of Royal Blue, Red and Gold which appear on the coat of arms (although purple is now used more frequently day-to-day). The tartan was designed by Michael King
Robert Gordon University - Garthdee campus time of Scott Sutherland's land donation, the site consisted mainly of open fields, often let out to tenant farmers, and the houses that characterise Garthdee as a suburb today had not yet been built. After extending Garthdee House (see below), the School of Architecture held its first classes there in 1957. Between 1966 and 2013, all other departments of the college (later to become Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology and then the Robert Gordon University) moved to Garthdee. The eastern part of the site was not part of Scott Sutherland's Garthdee estate, although it too had historically been part of