Large hand painted floor design of an illustrated map of the world.

The large floor graphics cover the whole of the area.

ZSL London Zoo: Animal Adventure Painted floor graphics

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floor & freestanding arts & culture project outdoor hand painted

Hand painted floor graphic

THE LOWDOWN

ZSL London Zoo asked us to help to put their Animal Adventure zone back on the map for their young visitors, calling on us to provide floor graphics throughout the menagerie of meerkats, coatis, and mongoose.

Built on the site of the original Children’s Zoo that first opened in 1938, the improved Animal Adventure retained its spirit of bringing kids closer to nature through play, capturing imaginations with a new activity area, complete with water splash zone.

The revamp also included specially designed low barriers for little ones to get up close with the residents, a catering kiosk for bigger explorers to refuel, and an open-air amphitheatre for daily talks with the expert zookeepers to be held.

The latter was a particularly exciting part of the renovation for us, as it was the one bit that saw us get our paint brushes out and truly go wild with a floor mural.

Floor graphics of a bear in the wild forests of north America.

Green map of the world with yellow seas.

Hand painted lettering in resistant paint.

Two feet and an autumn leaf on the floor graphics.

A couple of birds playing around the aviary.

THE SPECS

Naturally, the daily talks were expected to draw a large footfall into the area, so we set to work on hand painting huge floor graphics for the client – recreating their design of an illustrated world map and making a colourful splash the size of 10 meters by 6 meters to really attract the crowds.

As luck would have it, the installation took place over the hottest days of 2019, and proved a real challenge to complete in time for the grand re-opening of this section of the zoo. We nearly asked the lovely zookeepers to add us to the list of creatures that needed hydrating! Digging deep, the project was completed within 5 days and after the consumption of copious amounts of water.

Thinking ahead, we decided to use a durable, anti-slip paint to ensure the artwork would be resistant to the elements and safe to walk on whatever the weather. Composed of simple geometric shapes, animal silhouettes and multiple iterations of the word ‘wildlife’, the concept stays true to the Animal Adventure zones’ young audience. Fast-forward to Autumn and the piece is just as vibrant as it was when first laid, leaves and all, and we’re happy to see it has even withstood the everyday stampedes of pitter-pattering tiny tots.