ABOUT

Hjerl Hede is an open-air museum for cultural history located in the Region of West Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1930, it is the place where the first-ever living-history event was carried out.

The first part of our collaboration included redesigning the museum’s map as well as all the visual elements and guides for their new routes.
Designing a map asks for a well-balanced arrangement between a variety of design elements including terrain, icons, and building illustrations. Our choice was to go with an aesthetically pleasing but clear and informative layout with minimal icons and signs. A personal touch was added with illustrations of all the buildings that can be seen in the museum grounds.

The three new routes of the museum are theme-based tours inspired by Denmark’s folklore history and tradition. We came up with a characteristic icon for each route. The use of those icons helps with map navigation and creates a unified look for the routes’ printed guides.

DET VI FRYGTEDE “What we feared” demonstrates how people lived in the past and what they feared the most. The route is inspired by fairy tales and folklore legends that reflect on the human urge to create a meaningful narration for every vague and frightening situation. For this route, we came up with illustrations of the fantastic creatures that populated these stories.

DET VI DYRKEDE “What we cultivated” focuses on the techniques of traditional agriculture, food processing and nutrition. The route narrates everyday stories from the history of the Danish agriculture and explores the evolution of the food sector. Our botanical illustrations focused on the variety of produce that was part of the life rituals of the past.

DET VI BYGGEDE ‘What we built’ digs into the really innovative engineering that went into building houses, farms as well as crafting the tools they needed back then. We approached it with a look similar to that of a technical blueprint to highlight the functional aspects of these structures and provide the level of detail needed to understand how they worked.