FVC unveils new official College tartan

Forth Valley College has unveiled its own officially registered tartan, creating a distinctive new symbol of the College’s Scottish roots, its communities and its growing international presence.

The bespoke Forth Valley College tartan was officially revealed on Tuesday 15 September, during a special celebration at the College’s Stirling Campus, which also marked the reopening of its award-winning Gallery Training Restaurant following an extensive refurbishment.

Created in partnership with social enterprise International Tartans, every colour within the new tartan has been carefully chosen to tell part of the Forth Valley College story.

Dark blue and purple are drawn from the College’s own colour palette, while light blue and light green represent the River Forth flowing through the region. A distinctive rustic orange-red pays tribute to one of Scotland’s most recognisable landmarks, the iconic Forth Rail Bridge.

The design has been officially registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans, establishing it as a permanent part of the College’s identity.

More than simply a commemorative design, the tartan has been created to have a life well beyond the College’s 20th anniversary and is expected to feature at graduations, College events, international visits and overseas activity, as well as across gifts, clothing and merchandise.

The idea was first developed as Forth Valley College approached its 20th anniversary in 2025, when Principal Kenny MacInnes, Vice Principal for Business and Innovation Colin McMurray and Global Partnerships Manager Jamie Allan began discussing ways of marking the milestone with something that could endure for generations.

Those discussions coincided with the development of the College’s international ambitions and prompted the idea of creating something uniquely Forth Valley College which could also instantly communicate its Scottish identity wherever in the world it travelled.

The connection with International Tartans came through FVC’s membership of the Africa Scotland Business Network (ASBN). ASBN founder and Forth Valley local Claire Alexander, who now lives in South Africa, recommended the organisation to the College and attended the launch celebration.

International Tartans’ status as a social enterprise also made it a natural fit for FVC, combining specialist tartan design expertise with a wider social purpose.

Designer Emma Jones from International Tartans attended the event to formally present the finished tartan and its registration certificate to the College.

The creative process behind the design proved suitably Scottish, with Emma experimenting with the College colours using watercolours and scallop shells as she worked to find exactly the right balance of shades.

In an unexpected coincidence, scallops were also on the menu at the Gallery Restaurant for the launch dinner, giving guests the opportunity to sample what had inadvertently become one of the tartan designer’s more unusual pieces of creative equipment.

Principal Kenny MacInnes said: “This event marks two important milestones for the College. We are delighted to officially relaunch our award-winning Gallery Restaurant and to unveil our new bespoke College tartan. Both are symbols of who we are as a college: proud of our heritage, ambitious about our future, and committed to creating outstanding experiences for our students and communities.

“Thanks to Emma Jones from International Tartans, who joined us during the celebrations. We are grateful for their support and expertise in helping bring this project to life. We are incredibly proud of the finished design and what it represents for our college community.”

Emma Jones from International Tartans, said: “The design process for a tartan is always fun and challenging, and I really enjoyed this one, combining the Forth Valley colours with ones that reflect the local landscape. I usually always start with paints, as it gives me a chance to look at colour and composition before moving onto the screen to design. Living in Eyemouth, shells provide a great paint palette for small projects, so I use them to mix my colours.

“Landscape and place are reflected in many tartans, and there’s a long history behind that – before the Nineteenth Century, tartans were often woven locally using the wool and dyes available to weavers in particular areas. So, in a very practical sense, the cloth people wore was connected to the place it came from.

“At International Tartans, we’ve created tartans over the years specifically designed to bring countries, cultures and communities together. Our founder, David McGill, worked with embassies, consulates and diaspora communities, so collaboration has always been a really important part of our process. Forth Valley was no exception, and the resulting design reflects the College, the landscape around it and the communities that have come together to form Forth Valley College.

“We’re very pleased to have played a small part in creating a tartan that marks the College’s first 20 years, and hopefully will still be telling that story for many years to come.”

Jamie Allan, FVC Global Partnerships Manager, said: “What excites me most about the tartan is its potential to become part of the College for generations. In 20, 50 or even 100 years, students, staff and alumni could still be wearing the same Forth Valley College tartan we unveiled here tonight.

“Tartan is one of the most instantly recognisable expressions of Scotland around the world, so as Forth Valley College continues to build partnerships internationally, having something that connects our brand so visibly with our Scottish identity is incredibly powerful.

“But it is equally important that this belongs to our community here at home. I would love to see it worn at graduations and College events, when we welcome international visitors and when our staff and students travel overseas, becoming something people immediately associate with Forth Valley College.

“It connects where we come from with where we are going: proud of our Scottish heritage, but increasingly outward-looking, internationally connected and ambitious about our place in the world.”

The finished tartan was developed from a series of initial concepts produced by International Tartans, with the final design refined in collaboration with FVC before receiving approval from the College’s leadership team.

Its launch alongside the newly refurbished Gallery Restaurant brought together two distinctive elements of the College: its connection to Scotland and the Forth Valley, and its commitment to giving students outstanding real-world learning experiences.

The College now hopes the tartan will become an increasingly familiar sight both across Forth Valley and much further afield, providing students, staff, alumni and partners with a shared and enduring symbol of their connection to FVC.