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Anne Lister College shield winning design

Posted on 5 July 2021

It’s time to announce the winner of the Anne Lister College shield design competition!

The new Anne Lister College is set to open its doors to students in September this year. Following the announcement of the college name, a student-wide competition was launched to design the college shield.

We received 58 entries in total, all of which were unique and showed a real passion and an understanding of what Anne Lister represents.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the competition is Holly Burdon. Holly is a stage 3 biology undergraduate and has lived on campus as a member of Goodricke College for the past four years. Holly’s entry was accompanied by a very detailed explanation behind all of the elements included in her design:

• The Lister crest, a stag, is something important to incorporate and may even make a good college mascot! Usually the stag is placed above a helmet but this has been replaced with a top hat.
• The hat, although not necessarily ever worn by Anne herself or mentioned in her diaries, is a nod to the period drama "Gentleman Jack". The costume designers did extensive research and felt that a top hat was most representative of Anne Lister's personality and status and of lesbian culture of that era.
• The hat also represents the shattering of gender stereotypes and could be a symbol of how the college would be a champion for inclusivity and overcoming barriers to success.
• The Lister shield typically features three stars, so it was important to have these firmly incorporated as a key feature.
• Tying the stars together are Anne Lister's initials, "AL", in lettering inspired by Anne's own signature and handwriting styles of the time.
• Incorporating the initials of the college into the shield is something that many other colleges have done and it also makes the name of the college clearly identifiable just by looking at the shield without having to write out the full name every time.
• A line of code has been included which is an actual quote from Anne Lister's coded diaries. It reads: "have some courage". This would make an excellent college motto and it represents all that Anne Lister stood for.

We would like to thank everyone who submitted an entry, the shortlisting panel were astounded by the effort made and the quality of the designs.