Dallas Zoo Lights is a walk-through light experience during the winter holidays. This experience covers half of the Zoo, and requires signage in multiple forms for various messages. In the years I have been at the Dallas Zoo, we have sought to create signage that is accessible to our guests by being visible, navigating guests, explaining experiences, and highlighting how holiday cheer can be shared.
2024 Dallas Zoo Lights
In 2024, we continued to use many of the same signage techniques we used in 2023, while making minor changes to the illustrations to help keep the experience feeling fresh and new. We worked to stay closer to the designs used for the external paid media throughout the signage. The external media had a unique color scheme and utilized a string of holiday lights made from the Zoo Lights logo icon. It also combined lantern photography with landscape illustrations. We used the color scheme and string light illustrations on the in-park signage to help increase visual recognition and consistency. For the membership signage, we utilized the animal lantern photography and the storybook-style landscape illustrations. This helped the membership signage stand out from the other signage throughout the experience while still being consistent with the larger campaign.
This was the first time we also introduced a fully interactive digital map for the Dallas Zoo Lights experience. In an effort to test the effectiveness of the map, we reduced the amount of signage throughout the Zoo. We did this by not creating signage for area themes and individual photo ops. We did continue to produce directional signage for those who chose not to use the digital map, and custom signage for all food and beverage locations. We continued to create signage for the unique gift-giving opportunities, but we created an updated color scheme and typographic lockup to give it a fresh look. We also created signage for the unique visuals that were sponsored by other generous companies, where we sought to give them large and visible recognition.
2023 Dallas Zoo Lights
In 2023, we made signage for all the unique photo ops, light visuals, and experiences our guests got to enjoy for a month and a half. We also made signage to promote the benefits of membership, the various gift-giving opportunities the Zoo had since it was the season of giving, and signage to highlight the sponsors who helped make the event possible.
The base Dallas Zoo Lights signage utilized a white background to increase legibility during this low-light event, with holiday light shapes and colors pulled from the Dallas Zoo Lights logo. We gave the membership signage unique branding by using photography of the notable animal lanterns and creating the illusion of light and illumination with white and yellow typography and a dark background, which also complemented the external paid media campaign design. The gift-giving signage stood apart by utilizing photography of people enjoying holiday gifts, unique typography, and illustrations of holiday wreaths, holly, and colorful shapes.
VP of Marking and Communication: Kari Streiber
Project Manager: Courtney Wallover
Creative Design Manager: Sean Fowler
Graphic Designer: Kristina Edwards
