Studio Brief 01 - Tropical World's Logo

One of the issues concerning the problem with the wayfinding signage within Tropical World is the zoo's logo design. The logo's handwritten style lowers the professionalism of the zoo which in turn limits the sphere of demographic they can attract. By deciding on a definite composition and colour scheme of the logo, the signage within the zoo and entrance signs will have a more consistent theme. This helps create a better identifier for Tropical World as a result.

So my aims of the redesign is to incorporate professionalism whilst still appealing to the family market. Taking inspiration from the logo of Singapore Zoo, the use of a "rounded" typeface helps to convey connotations of friendliness because of it "soft" edges. After the re-branding work done on American Apparel in OUGD403 Studio Brief 01, the characteristics of GT Walsheim do share the characteristics I want to achieve.

 

GT Walsheim is effective in communicating aspects of professionalism and friendless due to the large counters in the letterforms which create a clean typeface allowing for clear legibility that can work on a variety of scales. The friendliness is communicated  through the rounded terminals of the r, and the large counters of the o and a. By having the large counters, the typeface has a lot of space that surrounds and within the letterforms, carrying an open image which is in line with the zoo's image of being open to the public.

In this experiment the decision to replace the W for a butterfly is in connection with the variations of the old logo, to help emphasise the identity of the zoo and because the butterflies are amongst the most numbered animals within the zoo. By incorporating the butterfly within the logo it helps give the visitor an idea of what to expect and provides them with a sense of atmosphere prior.

Following the same colour scheme as the entrance signage, I placed the logo onto a green background to have an initial idea of whether it will be successful against the colour scheme.

Compared to the old logo, GT Walsheim is effective in making Tropical World more current and professional. The large counters, wide character form and sans serif font carry a cleaner, crisper visual that does away with the jagged, irregular, unprofessional handwritten type of the current logo. The typeface brings much needed vibrancy to Tropical World that was lacking in its sign and wayfinding system that fails to immerse the visitor into the environment.

Developing on the idea of creating vibrancy for the zoo, experimentation with bright bold colours were appropriate in helping create that atmosphere. The word tropical evokes imagery of the Sun, exotic fruit, lush greenery, coconuts, etc. Therefore the colours chosen here were meant to represent that. Furthermore the colours are meant to personify the exotic animals found in the zoo through colour. The decision to add green within the logo was also to evoke imagery of the tropics to the reader. Through these experiments, orange and light green were most successful in delivering vibrancy due to their light tones. Yellow was the boldest of colours however due to the white copy of the logo, it lowered the legibility of the logo from a distance. Furthermore if a change in the copy colour to black would have similar attributes to hazard signs which is not favourable. The signs are meant to deliver vibrancy, friendliness and to engage the reader. The inclusion of green within the logo will be discarded because it is too distracting as the addition of the butterfly is already a identifier within the design.