The zoo as a product, built by designers
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) is a charity that aims to promote awareness and conservation of all animals but in particular vulnerable and endangered ones. They run conservation centres including Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park. Edinburgh Zoo itself welcomes over 800,000 visitors a year and is one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions. Their main aims, as listed on their website at www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/about-us, are Conservation, Education and Research.
After visiting Edinburgh Zoo, it soon becomes apparent how important the work they are doing is, but also how costly it is. The total cost of looking after the animals they care for in the zoo includes not only the enclosures themselves, but also the cost of food, electricity, and zookeepers to name a few. In addition, there are the expenses involved in researching the animals themselves, looking at why some are in danger or even going extinct, helping stop illegal poaching, and organising breading programs to regrow an animal’s population. It became apparent how important an educational RZSS was and as the zoo partnered itself with conservation it relied more heavily on the public’s help through charitable donations.
Working with a small group of individuals we were tasked with helping Edinburgh Zoo, creating a monument to help educate the public about conservation and the research work RZSS are doing, and to educate the public on what they can do to help and why they should become involved. While designing this monument it became apparent how design can impact the world, both positively and negatively. Designers are influencers, they can alter societies social and personal perceptions. This is why while designing for Edinburgh Zoo we had to take careful consideration of what impact we wanted to have.
Our main goals were to
· help raise funds for conservation
· educate the public on why zoos are needed and what the public can do and
· highlight the need for research and what the results has achieved
While carrying out our research into the way public city zoos gain donations and attract the same visitors’ numerous times it became apparent that this would be an important factor of our design. Past, present and future designers have altered, and will continue to have an effect on the public’s perception of zoos. They manage to design space for the animals, space for the visitors, and entangle them in an elegant, safe and functional way. They design posters and brochures, information stands and donation boxes. Every part of a zoo is continuously being designed and redesigned so that every party can get the most out of their zoo experience. But redesigning cost money and so encouraging visitors to donate to the charity is a big challenge in our design.
Regularly throughout history animals and especially exotic animals have been symbols of power and wealth. During the 18th century larger collections of animals were often prided as royal collections. According to Dr Nigel Rothfels these royal collections were also used in London for “the Zoological Society to have a study collection, and it was
“a very private space for the fellows themselves.”
However, they began to realise that the fellows were constantly writing permissions for their friends and acquaintances to visit the collection, so they began to open it up to visiting days for a broader public.” This was in his book ‘Savages and Beasts; The Birth of the Modern Zoo’. However, as these zoologists did not know very much about the animals yet, what they ate or what kind of environment they needed, the animals were often kept in small cages and given the wrong diet. A major fault with this was that the animals often had a very short life expectancy. So, when the first public zoo opened in London in 1828 what people saw was small cages and sick, frail, if not dead animals bought by the rich for their fun. This lack of knowledge and ignorance towards the animals is likely what created the stigma of zoos being bad for animals.
In the present day the knowledge that animals need specialist diets, enclosures to suit each animal and care and love to help the animals grow is obvious. But what we have also become aware of is the damage we have done to the animals’ natural habitats, ecosystems and food supply chains and this is causing them to become vulnerable and in some instances, extinct. Charities such as the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (1909) were set up to help and provide the much-needed support and guidelines to ensure the correct treatment of the animals. But with the negative stigma that zoos held, their main challenge to source money to fund this new research and conservation projects and maintain visitor numbers was extremely hard.
Designers have helped alter the public’s perception of zoos. Recreating the zoo experience altogether has had a huge effect on encouraging more visitors. In the early 1900 it was seen as an outing for the wealthy. Now it has been redesigned to be more affordable and be a complete day out. Designing new enclosures that are safe and comfortable for the animals and visitors that want to observe them was a priority. Working alongside the animal experts, zoo keepers and the public, the designer can get all the information and ideas to make the enclosures the best possible for all parties. The layout of the park has also been created by a designer often creating large walkways and open spaces for the visitors along with recreational space for picnics, restaurants, shops and parks to make a visit to the zoo a family day trip. This modern often open plan layout makes the park feel spacious and the subliminal message makes the visitors see the zoo as friendlier and spacious. It has managed to reengage the public. However this all costs money. Colchester Zoo costs 7.2 million a year to run, £600,000 a month. With their adult ticket price being £24.99 they need 833 people a day going through rain or shine. This is a little unlikely so they need to rely on more than just regular public ticket sales. Encouraging visitors to continue to come along in winter, or in the rain, is essential. Promoting special events also increases footfall at the zoo, such as when a new baby animal has been born. For example Edinburgh Zoo Lantern Festival was introduced last year encouraging visitors into the zoo ground to see paper lanterns in the dark.
While doing our project for Edinburgh Zoo we looked at different avenues to gain vital funds. Looking at services, bought items or pledging to improve the park were all options. An interesting discussion was how can you sell something that cannot be seen, for example research and conservation. These things cannot be easily held in a buyers hands or instantly seen. It’s an investment. Designer Joe Zeff, who owns his own boutique agency says that a story behind what you’re selling is very important especially when a product cannot be seen. And states
Story telling is a way to connect to the visitor or donator. It can provoke emotion and empathy or scare the viewer into doing something. This is manipulation and why advertisement works so well. Connecting to the views emotions. We wanted to do the same and the great thing about story telling is that it can be done through many medias, still pictures or words alone. Moving images or through a person. Designing such stories are a resource to selling a product. However, is it ethically right to play with emotions like this. Exploiting someone to feel remorseful, guilty, or sorry to a cause, filling them with negative feelings. Our project for Edinburgh Zoo required to have the right ethical balance between educating the viewer to the negative side effects of losing the conservation we have started and manipulating them into donating more money. Designers have to be aware of their own balance as one decision can likely influencing many people.
Throughout history there have been major oversights and educational breakthroughs that have shaped the way we see and interact with zoos. Designers have a big responsibility for influencing social and personal perceptions. This relating to the zoo and the stigma with them being cruel and unsafe for animals. Designers have helped in many ways to piece together a zoo’s good reputation. Through poster design, enclosure design and park design, the importance of research and education on what each party needs require to be highlighted. The cost behind all these new designs and cost of helping the animals is huge. It is also a designer’s job to take these factors into consideration so that they can give the best possible solution. Many solutions have already been around but may require to be re-emphasised, whilst new situations and problems require the creation of entirely new solutions. Without designers zoos would not exist in the shape they are today, and conservation projects would not be as well known. The education and ‘why?’ behind any good design is a crucial stepping stone to understanding a market.
