ATELIER dada goes international

The second semester of the academic year has started, and I’m very aware of it. Almost everyone around me is studying or still making study choices. Meanwhile, my days are filled with briefings, presentations, and cases. It makes me wonder... What if I were still a student? What would I be doing?

Would YUFE be an option?

You may be wondering: YU–what? Don't worry. We had to look it up too when they approached us. YUFE stands for Young Universities for the Future of Europe. It's a partnership between ten different European universities and various companies. It's for students, staff, but also any European citizen who wants to continue learning throughout their life. In our country, this includes the University of Antwerp, in the Netherlands it's Maastricht University, in Croatia it's the University of Rijeka, etc. 

Sure, Erasmus, I hear you thinking. Well, no, Erasmus is bilateral. YUFE is a network of no fewer than ten universities. That means you are affiliated with one partner, but you can take classes from an entire ecosystem. As a student, you can easily study abroad, but you can also do internships or, even more interesting, participate in volunteer programs where you put your skills to work for good causes.

There are several other alliances between European universities. But YUFE is unique. They go one step further: they even have their own bachelor's program in Urban Sustainability Studies. This means that you are enrolled at ten universities at the same time. You can switch, combine, and move around. Go wherever you want.

I only recently learned about YUFE, but Kelly and Geert? They have known about YUFE since 2022...

Hi, will you come and help us?

That was the question posed by YUFE in 2022 to ATELIER dada. At the time, they had applied for European funds... and received them. With that, they had conceived their entire European University of the Future and begun to build it piece by piece. But how should they tackle the next crucial step? In other words: how do you communicate this to potential students? How do you ensure that eager learners enroll at YUFE? In our workshop, we boiled everything down to one clear question: how do you explain and sell the program to a YUFE student?

Together, we gathered marketing insights and started co-creating. We searched for the sweet spot: the intersection between what YUFE offers and what students really want. To do this, we drew up an empathy map and walked through the entire customer journey as if we were students ourselves.

All these insights did not disappear into a drawer. They were translated into various concrete actions that YUFE could use internally.

But that's not the end of this story...

The workshop had made quite an impression. But it was obviously too short to develop an in-depth strategy. A few months later, we were invited back to YUFE. This time, not for a workshop, but to develop a complete marketing blueprint.

Why? Simple: the workshop had made them realize that communication and marketing are two very different things after all. And that they needed some extra help with the latter. Thanks to the co-creative moment, we also immediately gained the trust of all stakeholders at the table.

So we did what we do best: an in-depth analysis of the brand, marketing, and communication, and tested it against their business and organizational reality. In other words, we dove into the market, spoke with students, professors, administrative profiles, partner companies, and gathered insights. This allowed us to outline a brand persona and determine a tone of voice, among other things. We conducted a competitive analysis, a positioning exercise, and analyzed the possible channels for reaching the various target groups. We gave the corporate identity a slight twist and even provided some creative ideas for the future.

But the most important results that emerged from the analysis were the recommendation to set up their own central office with a MarCom department and build a user-friendly new website.

Denis makes his debut

After the blueprint, the first step was clear: the website had to be revamped first. Meanwhile, YUFE had hired a MarCom manager, so the question was simple: how could we actually improve the website?

Kelly and Denis worked together with the YUFE central office and MarCom department to draw up the wireframes down to the smallest detail. Then, with the help of Trivali Digital Agency, they built everything.  And Denis did more than just wireframes. He also worked on YUFE's visual style.
__ Oh yes, and this was Denis' first assignment for ATELIER dada. Exciting, isn't it?

The design was based on the logo we had previously refreshed in the blueprint. From there, Denis developed a complete visual identity for the website: color scheme, typography, icons, everything consistent and recognizable.

Since YUFE is a European organization, the website was built entirely in accordance with the European Union's accessibility guidelines. This meant ensuring that colorblind students don't get lost, images are always well described, and everything can be easily enlarged or reduced in size.  Small things that make this journey truly special.

And another step further

The website was attractive, well-organized, and accessible. So all is said and done? Not quite! We like to go the extra mile.
__ You know us, right? 

So we created some showpieces: videos for the website. First, we made an animated video together with Brutus. In it, the tangram blocks from the logo were used as a metaphor for the collaboration between the universities.

Our second showpiece was a hero video that we made together with Ruben and Otis. In that, we explain what YUFE is, who is behind it, and who it is intended for: students, staff, companies, etc. Anyone who wants to continue learning throughout their life.

And because YUFE continues to grow, another induction video was added in 2025. Every student who starts a course first sees this short introduction to YUFE.

All of that ... entirely in English!

Oh yes, did I mention that this was a completely European project? So everything was in English. Taking into account stakeholders from ten different countries, different universities, different expectations...

It's unique to experience such a project from start to finish. And perhaps even more unique: coming up with a single product in one single workshop with a whole bunch of different people.

Well, I'm no longer a student, so I can't enroll at YUFE. But learning? I still do that every day, here at K&G.
__No, not KdG, but at the school of Kelly & Geert.