@sooty mangabey I'm inclined to disagree with you there about the signs.
While it's not an aesthetic that I would choose for myself, just judging from the pictures in the gallery the signs look attention-grabbing, clear, large, and seem to include what I would think of as the essential features of a good zoo sign: common name, scientific name, a picture of the animal, conservation status, distribution information, and some kind of additional fact. It looks like the sort of sign that would encourage the general public to read it and I imagine would be quite attractive to small children, don't you think?
Is it just the extreme brashness and garishness that you dislike about this sign?
Of course the capitalisation of the specific name and lack of italicising is unforgivable (but that's mostly just my pedantry) and the location of the circle on the map is very poor, but I've seen much worse errors on zoo signage.
@LaughingDove Yes - it’s the total lack of aesthetic charm. The font, the design, the layout - everything looks cheap and nasty! There is nothing about this sign to suggest that “Exotic Zoo” is a serious-minded place; rather, it just looks appallingly naff.
@sooty mangabey A question which I'm not sure of the answer to: should signage in zoos try to be bold and stand out and attract attention or should they be subtle and discrete and only be visible to those looking for them?
Of course, being bold and attracting attention does not necessitate the amount of garishness in this sign, but I think brightness and colour, and I would go so far as to say more childish graphics, do help draw people's attention to signage. Of course drawing people's attention to signage is only good if it has educational benefit and I think this sign does (though not as much as it could) despite the minor but still inexcusable careless errors.
(Note: I am being devil's advocate to an extent. I don't particularly like this sign and I wouldn't choose it personally, but I wonder if signage like this does have a benefit for getting people to look at it. My preference would probably be for something like Tierpark Berlin's excellent small signs, but I wonder how much they are noticed compared to something more like this.)
