Overtone Designs Identity for Aalborg's Largest Art Hall, Before It's Built
Turning Denmark's largest listed industrial complex into a contemporary art institution requires a visual identity that can hold both histories at once. Aarhus-based Overtone® has designed the brand identity, custom typography and digital platform for Kunsthal Spritten, a new art hall taking shape inside Aalborg's former akvavit distillery, a 1931 neoclassical factory complex on the Limfjord waterfront. The art space is under construction, so the identity has to function now, while the institution operates as a nomadic programme across the city.
An identity that steps back for the art
A contemporary art hall needs an identity that can assert itself in promotion and wayfinding, then disappear when art is on the wall. Overtone has designed a custom display typeface for Kunsthal Spritten, though it is used sparingly — primarily as an identity marker in the wordmark, numerals and short statements rather than as a headline face. The restraint is deliberate: a display typeface with strong character demands careful layout, and the day-to-day operation of an art hall cannot depend on that level of control.
The same logic extends to the system's long-term structure. The website is built not as a temporary placeholder but as a platform that will transition directly into ticketing and operations when the building opens, expected in 2027. Typography, colour and grid are conceived as a system that scales from posters to signage. Wayfinding is the main element still in development — it depends on the finished spaces and visitor flows that don't yet exist.
A rooftop sign as a design brief
The distillery carries a specific architectural language — neoclassical facades, strict vertical rhythms, red brick — but Overtone's brief was not to preserve it. The task was to find a position where the heritage could be present without locking the identity into the past.
"We've been looking for a position where the heritage of the place can be present without fixing the identity in the historical," says Nicolaj Bak, Creative Director and Founder at Overtone.
Previously, Overtone has worked with Christiansborg Palace, part of the Royal Collection. For this project, there was a very clear expectation that the historical and monumental is taken seriously. "With Kunsthal Spritten, the industrial heritage is strong, but it's not sacred in the same way, and that gives room to push the expression in a more contemporary direction," Bak adds.
The starting point became the existing lettering on the factory roof — "Aalborg Akvavit" — a sign that is both an icon of the city's industrial past and a direct, unadorned typographic statement. Rather than translating facades or ornamental details, Overtone worked with the structure and atmosphere of the building: a tight grid, a near-monochrome palette with red carried over from the factory interior, and a modular, monospaced display typeface drawn from the character of the rooftop sign.
“The art always comes first. The identity needs to take up space when required — in communication, in promotion — but it also has to be able to step back and make room for the art. It's an ongoing balance.”
Nicolaj Bak, Creative Director & Founder at Overtone
