The brand platform

As a part of the development phase, the Communication Department has held a number of workshops with representatives of the management and employees at the faculties and the university as a whole.

On the basis of these workshops, we have succeeded in distilling the values, the tone and style, and the core messages that define SDU. We term these values “spectra”, and they are concentrated expressions of what makes SDU stand out.

They are not to be communicated directly, but serve to chart a direction for how communication and marketing staff, in particular, are to develop communication materials – which tone and style we are to use, and how we present ourselves.

All aspects of this are supported by the design system that has been developed.

• Classic & Dynamic

  We combine classic virtues such as education, specialisation and knowledge with dynamic relevance, attentive attitude and sustained enterprise.

  Some institutions define themselves on the basis of what they were, and want to continue to be – their name, their heritage, their pride. As if echoes from yesterday can carry them into tomorrow.
  
  We look at the results today and the future we want to influence. We are borne forward by our striving to be a modern, meaningful and relevant knowledge institution. The inquisitive researchers, dedicated staff, the passionate teachers and the large numbers of talented students. Together, they form the backbone of SDU. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

• Elite & Popular

  There is something sympathetic and unique in embracing the elite and the popular at the same time – a position that recognises the extremely special, and loves the rest of us.

  SDU is happy to acknowledge its elite position, praising the academic lighthouses and highlighting the deep, nerdy, peculiar, heavy academic material. The elite aspects constitute a fundamental premise that is turned into an asset and showcased with justifiable pride.
  
  But the elite aspects risk becoming exclusionary and unapproachable. That is not the SDU way.
  
  SDU succeeds in balancing its elite position and authority with an inviting, liberating and popular approach to its interaction with local society, partners and, in particular, to its communication with the general public.

• Virtuous & Challenging

  We are rooted in history and have an inherent need to innovate. Perhaps even a need to be a little challenging and different. But moderation in all things: cheeky but not improper.

  Research and education activities at SDU are – naturally – serious, objective, orderly and thorough. Virtuous. Orderliness and virtue inspire confidence. SDU is a place you can count on and invest in with regard to research funds, career and educational aspirations.
  
  - forskningsmidler, karriere og uddannelse.
  
  But SDU is also rounded off (or sharpened, if you prefer) by its unwavering need to seek out new opportunities and relevant positions for SDU research and education activities, and for the organisation as a whole. The challenging aspect has thus become a supplementary fundamental premise – which generates noteworthy initiatives, with test-based admissions being a prime example.
  
  Welcome to our world of constant, secure and unassuming experimentation. Welcome to a university built on the fundamental concept of change rather than traditional security.

• Serious & Playful

  We are serious and ambitious. All universities are. But few succeed in combining academic gravitas and professional pride with a playful and inquisitive approach.

  Research and education are crucial and serious matters – to us, to our students and to our researchers. Our results and our capacity to interact with the outside world, as well as our ability to nurture talent, position us as a key partner in Danish society.
  
  And we’re not here for the stay-at-homes: we are inquisitive, playful and experiment-oriented by nature, and we’re happy to step out onto thin ice. We dare to take focused, carefully considered gambles, with the liberty to try, evaluate and try again.

• Focused & Far-reaching

  We cultivate our expertise and results through sustained focus, while our socially relevant knowledge, our attractive position and our strong relations are all developed through innovative contexts.

  One of our key purposes is to help talents to bloom and to promote the unique.
  
  Every day, we encounter a host of talented, multi-skilled students and researchers who are driven by different ambitions, but who are all in search of the same thing. We all share a thirst for the deep, focused expertise, for succeeding in an ambition, for pursuing a sense of curiosity, for establishing an attractive set of professional skills.
  
  However, the university staff, the students and the success of researchers cannot rest on their laurels of skills and capabilities. We generate high-profile sustainable value via our constant and relevant perspectivisation across academic disciplines, with an unswerving focus on the society we are part of and want to influence – with our professionalism and diversity.

Our complex, multifaceted and changeable reality makes us what we are. The five spectra set out our value-based extremes and define what we all have in common. SDU study programmes and research activities are classic, elite, virtuous, serious and focused. The organisation as a whole is dynamic, popular, challenging, playful and far-reaching.

It is important to us to embrace this wonderful complexity in a simple and vigorous core – a brand essence that stakes out our position.

Brand wheel

We held two workshops In conjunction with the development of the new SDU brand platform. A broad selection of SDU staffers took part, including senior managers, faculty members and admin staff. Students from the Syddanske Studerende (SDS – the South Danish Students) organisation also took part.

At each workshop, the distinctive characteristics of SDU were discussed on the basis of a “brand wheel” featuring several pairs of opposite characteristics. The further out the workshop participants placed SDU on each line between a pair of opposites, the more clearly they wanted SDU to communicate that particular characteristic or trait.

7 brand wheels were prepared. The one shown here reflects the inputs and conclusions from workshop 1.

Insight & Bite

The foundations of SDU lie in societal commitment, high-quality education and ambitious, relevant research. Without our pronounced diligence and insight, we would quite simply not exist. Our constant striving for greater acknowledgement makes us what we are: a university.

At the same time, SDU is something truly special. Our history dates back to a time of upheaval, where altered standards and new demands on our very existence created the agile, responsive university we are today.

We continue to shape and adapt ourselves to match developments in society – inquisitive and keen to experiment. We transcend boundaries, disrupt entrenched thinking, and let new ideas and approaches blossom.

Without our distinctive bite, we will not be here tomorrow.

• Sharp, but not cynical

  We have knowledge and attitude, and are quick with a response: intellectual, relevant and readily comprehensible. We dare to speak up, we dare to stimulate debate – but always balanced and with pronounced respect.

• Present, but not stifling

  We are open, accommodating and respectful in all dialogue. We meet people and partners with equal parts candid presence and appropriate professionalism. We are equal partners, not friends.

• Serious, but not dull

  We are proud and serious in everything we do and everything we say. We have insight and bite – it is clear to everyone that depth, personality, intention and goodwill lie behind everything we say and everything we do.

• Intellectual, but not exclusionary

  We speak and write from the expert perspective, irrespective of function: clipped, clear and concise. We never talk down to anyone. We use everyday language and jargon when it suits the situation, and only come across as elite researchers when this is required and in the right context.

We generate value for and with the society of which we are part. We encourage talents to blossom and promote the unique. We transcend boundaries and shape the future.

SDU is the third-largest university in Denmark – founded in 1966 and since shaped and powered by a constant need to pinpoint challenging, attractive positions for our research, educational and organisational activities.

Academic expertise is cultivated through sustained focus, while societally relevant skills, capabilities and results are developed through inter-disciplinary and far-reaching relations and partnerships. SDU covers a broad and a deep range in its hunger for expertise and results, its desire to succeed in its ambitions, to pursue its inquisitiveness, and to establish professional and attractive skill sets.

Each and every talented student, ambitious researcher and dedicated member of staff therefore maintains a constant and watchful eye on the society we aim to – and want to – influence with our professionalism and diversity.

Reduced version:
SDU is the third-largest university in Denmark – set up, shaped and driven by a constant need to identify challenging, attractive positions for research, education and organisation.

SDU maintains a wide-reaching, in-depth scope in its inquisitive pursuit of expertise, perspective and results and in the university’s ability to develop attractive, relevant courses and skills development for talented students and for the wider community that we wish to influence.