How do you renew the identity of a place where history is such an essential part of its character? For Den Gamle By, an open-air museum in Aarhus, the challenge was to create a more contemporary and coherent visual expression without losing what made it familiar and recognisable. Rather than starting over, we approached the identity as an evolution. We preserved familiar elements, refined others and built on the museum's own visual heritage. The ambition was not simply to reference the past, but to create an identity rooted in history and relevant to the present. Typography became a defining part of the identity. Drawing on traditional Danish sign painting and lettering, a craft visible throughout Den Gamle By, we refined the distinctive proportions of the existing logo and extended its design principles into a custom typeface. Together, the logo and typography create a visual language that connects past and present, reflecting a museum whose stories span generations — from Hans Christian Andersen to the modern rainbow family. Alongside this, we developed a flexible design system bringing together colour, imagery, pictograms, graphic frames and layout principles. Both the colour palette and graphic shapes are rooted in the museum's physical surroundings, drawing from architectural details, painted surfaces, doors, windows and historic interiors. The result is an identity that feels unmistakably Den Gamle By while giving the museum new possibilities to communicate. A recognisable and flexible system that connects history with contemporary life across physical, printed and digital experiences.