Zoo Tunes

Overview

Zoo Tunes is a concert series held during the summer at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The event has open seating, and visitors enjoy the concerts from a vast lawn located within the zoo. Concert goers bring blankets to hang out and enjoy the show, food (which they’re invited to bring from home, or can purchase from food trucks), and time to spend with family and friends. With headliners like Blondie, Indigo Girls, and the B52’s, the event is an opportunity for adults in the Seattle area to enjoy concerts almost all summer long.

Challenge & Solution

In advertising the event, collateral needed to be family-friendly, and appeal to both children and adults. The design solution needed to feature an engaging visual style that, while still appealing to families, conveyed that the event isn’t just a kid’s show.

Zoo Tunes brings together nature, music, and all that come along with a zoo in a lively, fun, family-friendly way. The music and event overtake the zoo, leading to an immersive “jungle” experience. My design solution showcases and emphasizes the unique location and liveliness of the concert series, as well as the integration of music with nature and the ability to immerse yourself in the experience through lively, discoverable surprises and hand-touched illustrations.

Timeline
10 weeks

Tools
Procreate
Illustrator
Photoshop
Indesign

Roles
Research
Illustration
Environmental Graphics

Wayfinding Signage located within the Park

Mood Board

The selected typefaces have as much character as the event: they’re playful, unique, and bubbly. The overall tone matches that of the event, and the rich colors laid on top of a deep green add sophistication and depth to the lively, playful illustration style. This helps bring together the appeal of the event for both adults and families.

Vibrant, natural colors paired with bright pops of accent colors bring the visual tone together and ring true to the natural, yet lively atmosphere of the event. The graphic elements are hand-touched, lively, and have a lot of character, featuring custom illustration to portray a sense of playfulness.

Headline & Illustration

I initially explored a more structured approach that didn’t put as much emphasis on illustrations. I played with simple vector shapes, but ultimately settled on something that was more unique and hand-touched. Over multiple iterations, I began utilizing texture and shading in leaves and other illustrative elements. For the headline, I initially played with something clean, simple, and accessible. I then started to explore hand lettered type, and integrating the type more with the poster and concept as a whole.

This was my first time exploring hand lettering, and it proved to be a huge challenge that I was able to overcome. Battling not only my own self doubt, but also my lack of experience in both illustration and lettering. What started simple became more refined and structured over time. Below, you can see the evolution of the poster, illustration style, and headline.

As shown in the third draft, I wanted to retain playfulness and inspiration from the Beastly typeface. However, I was unhappy with how unrefined the typeface appeared. As seen in the final headline, I spent a lot of time working with the structure and alignment of each individual letter as well as how they were integrated with the poster.