London Project #3: London Zoo Project - Booklet development

My idea is to design a new range of zoo merchandisings – interior decorations that provide children with scientific facts about wildlife and educate the young generation to love animals.This idea origanlly came from a true story happened after the release of Finding Nemo: An “I want Nemo” phenomenon surfaced and studies showed that the demand for clownfish skyrocketed after the film’s release, as many children wished for a Nemo of their own:

“Because hatcheries were not able to meet the increased demand, retailers had to resort to buying wild caught specimens. As a consequence, wild populations of clownfish were significantly reduced…” (Aquariumwelfare, 2016)

With the unwanted result of declining clownfish population, the film-makers could perhaps be surprised to see a consequence that is the direct opposite of the meaningful idea of the film. Biologists and conservationists were worried that the same situation would happen to the blue tang fish (Dory) when the sequel is on screen. As a result, before the release of Finding Dory in June 2016, many marine biologists called for action from parents to buy their children the plastic fish toy, which the Disney merchandising department always offer a wide diversified range to choose from, instead of the wild-caught version.

My zoo merchandising product will be delivered in a form of a felted animal presented in a scenery box, with the informative, illustrated packaging wrapping on the outside. I chose the hexagonal box shape, because if we put them together on the store shelves, it would look like a giant beehive, which creates a sense of “ We are one big family”. My itention is to create at least 3 boxes: one for The rabbit with the message “Don’t capture wild rabbits ” – one for The fox “Don’t use real fur products” – and one for The bee “ Build more houses for the bees”, and of course, the attached booklets will all explain why these messages matter.

For the content, I wish I could carry on my own research on these matters but at the moment due to lack of time I am still using words taken from the same topic booklet of The Nature Conservency - New York, for my draft version. If time allowed, I am happy to create more booklets with different endangered animals like crocodile, flamingo,…