Face to Face

Established in 1953, Zoo de Granby is a zoo in the city of Granby, Quebec, about an hour east of Montréal. A non-profit organization, its mission is to “offer an enriching, entertaining and educational experience aimed at creating animal conservation awareness for a diverse clientele of all ages”. Home to over 1,500, the zoo also features an amusement park and a water park, employing more than 800 people during its peak season. This month, Zoo de Granby introduced a new identity, designed by Montréal-based lg2.

This new identity is bold, playful and more welcoming to the public, and signifies the zoo’s desire to become an ambassador of the magic of the animal kingdom. It also reflects its ambitions to become one of the premier tourist destinations in northeastern North America.

The inspiration came from the simplicity and flexibility of the word ‘zoo,’ and in exploring how these three letters could be used to illustrate different animals. This was the foundation for a playful, contemporary brand platform that will grow and adapt over time to represent the Zoo de Granby experience.

lg2 project page

The old logo was, literally, wild, with a sun-like silhouette that could accommodate different animal textures and a “ZG” monogram that would adapt as well. I don’t quite like it but I definitely applaud its daringness to be very unexpected. The old wordmark, though, in horizontally-scaled — I checked — Gill Sans was terrible. But enough about the old logo. The new logo, at first glance, looks only like a funky rendition of the word “ZOO” but it sets the foundation for a logo that can turn into different abstract animal faces. In its primary version, it doesn’t quite look like a face instantly — it’s only after you see the animation or applications, which most people will eventually see but for first-timers, logging on to the website or social media, the intention isn’t quite evident. Nonetheless, as a system of logos, the different faces are charming and fun. I especially like the frog one and wonder if that could have been the primary logo — “ZOO” is such a recognizable word that I’m sure most people would make the leap from frog face to word.

The animal patterns are nice and they work great together with the faces as in the banners above although I also like the more literal combination seen in the letterhead that blends the animal shape, the face logo, and the pattern into an image. The one thing that stands out oddly is the use of “GRANBY” in a rectangle where it looks too corporate, almost like the sponsor of the zoo. In looking closer at the banners, I also prefer the versions (the ones on the left) where there is a border around the patterns as it makes it all look a little more intentional.

Overall, this has a great playfulness to it and is quite expandable to the many facets of the zoo, from uniforms to merchandise.