Yes, it's supposed to invoke a very slight sense of "graphic design is my passion." There was an existing seal design, then the University opened, some poor county staffer was told to emphasize that we have a university now and they slapped something on there.

The motto is ambiguous. It could carry the sense of either "from rare magnificence" or "greatness from strangeness." The direction of causality (does Emmet cause the strangeness or did it attract him?) is also ambiguous.

Actual graphic design by  RockySFPlaya