Red Panda Experience

I created a poster and brochure to promote the Charles Paddock Zoo’s new Red Panda Experience, which features a themed area and an enclosure with three red pandas. The Charles Paddock Zoo is a small but growing zoo and is currently the only zoo in the Central Coast area of California.

Because the existing zoo feels a bit dated, I wanted to give a flavor of the exhibit’s environment in a more modern and eye-catching way than what the zoo may be used to. However, I wanted to make sure that the final product still felt appealing to children and families, as they are the zoo’s primary audience.

My design process eventually led me to a more colorful and simplified illustration style that would appeal to children and adults alike while also giving a flavor of what the experience looks like. The brochure carries over the design of the poster into a more text-heavy setting that communicates important information about the zoo.

Design Development

These thumbnails showcase a variety of poster and brochure layouts that I experimented with before landing on the final product. These sketches were a great way to explore the relationships between image/illustration and text and decide on a hierarchy.

Initial poster ideation involved a more photography-based approach, but nothing was quite capturing the feeling I hoped to convey. I created a detailed illustration of a red panda to anchor the poster, but I found that it was not communicating the “experience” well enough.

Skills:

• Ideation and concept development

• Poster and brochure design

• Digital illustration with Adobe Illustrator

• Brochure layout with Adobe InDesign