Commissioned by the Board of Trustees, the artist behind the current Whittier College Seal is Endi Poskovic, a Whittier professor, scholar, and artist internationally renowned for printmaking, drawings, and unique graphic imagery. Poskovic was approached in fall of 1999 to create an image and motto reflective of the modern Whittier College experience.

The central image depicts the unification of two lit candles to form a single flame, surrounded by a circle of smaller candlesticks. The design is meant to symbolize the infinite transferal of knowledge within mankind, specifically that which is found in an educational environment— from professor to student, from student to professor, from peer to peer, and so on. Poskovic’s inspiration for the new seal hailed from the Light of Learning Ceremony, a tradition celebrated each year at the President’s Convocation during fall Orientation, and one that Poskovic avows is “the most memorable event for all in the Whittier community.”

The motto found on the inner circumference of the seal is Lux, Poesis, Veritas, Pax, Amor Eruditionie
or "Light, Poetry, Truth, Peace, and Love of Knowledge."

The new seal and its motto were formally adopted by the Board of Trustees in spring of 2000. Up to that time, the official Whittier College Seal had undergone several iterations, most often illustrated with an iconic representation of the College’s namesake, John Greenleaf Whittier.