Putting a new face forward

By Michael Stevenson, President and Vice-Chancellor
Photography by Greg Ehlers

Over the past 40 years, SFU has grown from a small, innovative institution with a fresh mission and a local student base to a major Canadian university with an expanding presence on the international stage. We now have three campuses, six faculties, 60 departments and schools, 63 institutes and centres, an international dual-degree program, and a student enrolment of more than 25,000.

Each individual department and program has built a strong identity within its own specific communities, but the image of SFU collectively has been relatively unclear. Our visual identity has been distorted by the tendency for every unit on campus to take a unique approach to letterhead, business cards, and even the use of the university’s crest. This may be typical for dynamic, rapidly growing, young organizations such as ours, but with increased competition for students, faculty members, staff, research grants, government funding, and philanthropic investment, we need to stand above the crowd.

To achieve this, SFU, like other universities, has sought ways to encapsulate our complexity in a clear visual identity and tag line summary of our distinctive vision and mission. Our goal has been to develop a new SFU brand, building on our heritage and success, inspiring us as we move forward, and strengthening our position on the world stage.

I am now announcing the creation of a visual identity for Simon Fraser University that includes a new logo, business cards, stationery, website design, and recommendations for applying the logo to all of our marketing materials and signage. The new logo is, in fact, a return to our past. The original SFU logo – a “toothpaste” stripe of the three letters – was designed in the 1960s by renowned visual artist Iain Baxter of the legendary Centre for Communication and the Arts in the Faculty of Education.

The new logo is again a bold, clear, and contemporary representation of the letters SFU, designed by Jim Rimmer, perhaps Canada’s premier typeface designer. His papers are deposited in SFU’s Special Collections, and the SFU Library’s “Rimmerfest” celebrated his achievements this past November. (See aq story)

Jim Rimmer is an icon in the Canadian publishing industry. He has mentored a generation of typog- raphers and designers.

The new logo is supplemented by a tag line – “Thinking of the World” – which has emerged from a process of consultation with high school students and counsellors, current students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community stakeholders. It speaks to the role that the university plays in fundamental research uncovering the mysteries of the world and the applied research responding to the needs of the wider community, as well as to SFU’s distinctive commitment to active social engagement, locally and globally. The logo and tag line have been accepted by the Board of Governors and will be used from this day forward.

Together the logo and tag line create a new visual identity that will, I hope, create in the external community greater recognition of SFU’s collective presence and achievements, and a more consistent impression of this university’s values and commitments.

As we think of the world, the world will think of SFU. aq

Photography of Jim Rimmer courtesy of Anson Lee.

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