A bold blue Atlanta History Center logo

Atlanta History Center

History lives in Atlanta.

"We wanted to be a place where every Atlantan could see their life reflected.”

We helped AHC reimagine itself as an active cultural platform for every Atlantan. A place where the fabric of our city is woven through shared stories of our past, our culture, and our future.

AHC had extraordinary assets, a visionary leader, and a team doing remarkable work. It didn’t have a brand that told the truth about any of it. We were hired to reposition the Atlanta History Center, craft a new vision, and build the identity, messaging, and communications for their next chapter.


Truth

We talked to Atlantans — young and old, rich and poor, from every geography of the city. Longtime residents who remembered school field trips decades ago. Students who'd just taken the same trip. And a consistent picture emerged: people were vaguely aware of the History Center, but it didn't feel relevant to them.

Worse, it was widely understood as a Civil War institution. It was seen as a keeper of old Southern history, something close to an antebellum celebration. Less civil rights, more Civil War.

The gap between that perception and reality was enormous. The AHC team were working hard to make the History Center a living, breathing part of Atlanta, and taking on the honest job of examining how history gets remembered and misremembered. Our job was to bring the truth of the institution into the light.

"The reputation was about preserving old Southern history. The reality was a living, breathing part of Atlanta."

A vibrant grid of Atlanta History Center artifacts, highlighting iconic objects from Atlanta’s cultural and historical collections in a modern, colorful style.
The Atlanta History Center’s History Matters magazine cover, featuring a Medal of Honor artifact and bold typography celebrating local and national history.
A historic vintage microphone from the Atlanta History Center collection, displayed with the museum’s signature blue graphic bars.
An Atlanta History Center outdoor banner reading “History Happens Here,” promoting the museum’s mission to celebrate Atlanta’s stories.

Beauty

We repositioned the History Center as a place that represents Atlanta for everyone — where anyone across the city could feel welcome, see their life reflected, and understand their own history.

That meant a fundamental shift in posture. Less authority, less expertise, more platform. We moved the institution from telling to inviting — removing the velvet ropes, both literally and figuratively, and making the experience open and participatory. History as something you use and explore, not something you're lectured about.

It also meant escaping the trap of a single period. Instead of one era, we focused on the themes that make Atlanta remarkable — acts of courage, acts of leadership — telling a story of the past that points toward a future everyone can want a part of, whether they're a fifth-generation Atlantan or arrived last year.

History museums slip easily into the stuffy, rigid, and cumbersome. The identity couldn't. It had to be vivid — a beacon bright enough to make all of Atlanta reconsider what the History Center is. Everything we built had to prove the same point: history is alive right now, and the themes of our past are shaping our future.

"We took down the velvet ropes."

The iconic blue feature wall at the Atlanta History Center lobby, displaying the museum’s modern logo and welcoming guests to explore Atlanta’s history.
The Atlanta History Center’s interior atrium featuring large hanging banners of historic artifacts, inviting visitors into immersive exhibits.

Impact

The repositioning gave the institution language and a look equal to its ambition — and the years since have borne the vision out.

Under Hale's leadership the History Center undertook one of the most significant transformations of any cultural institution in the city, including the campaign to relocate, restore, and reinterpret the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama — a monumental painting that had spent a century being read as a Lost Cause monument. Rather than avoid that complexity, the History Center leaned into it, presenting the painting as a case study in how the same facts get reinterpreted across time and asking visitors to examine their own perceptions and misperceptions. It's the clearest possible expression of the position: not an authority handing down the past, but a platform inviting Atlanta to think.

That's a history center that belongs to everybody. It's what Sheffield Hale saw, and what we helped Atlanta finally see too.

"Facts do not change. How we understand the past varies widely." — Sheffield Hale

Gatheround: Stories of Atlanta” and Pray for ATL Graphics Colorful promotional graphics for the Atlanta History Center’s “Gatheround: Stories of Atlanta” exhibition, highlighting Atlanta culture and historic storytelling.
“This is exactly what AHC has needed
for such a long time!”

Bess

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