PUBLICATION CENTER

The San Diego Zoo is ranked among the world's best in zoological attractions. Now in its 90th year of operation, the zoo hosts about 3.2 million visitors per year, and boasts more than 250,000 households as members.

Encompassing about 100 acres, the zoo is home to more than 4,000 rare and endangered animals, representing more than 800 species and subspecies.

This environment requires a keen eye for signs and graphics. They have to be appropriate, inviting, durable, and informational. All the challenges of the commercial sign industry, from wayfinding to installation, can be found here.

Fred Bareno, Teddi Ozmun, Diane Marika, and Eddie Gonzalez are in charge of designing, producing, and installing the zoo's sign program.

Bear Necessities

Bareno started working at the zoo when he was 18. From there, he took his graphic design and silk-screen skills to the sign business, which he's been working in for the past 30 years. About four years ago, Bareno came back to the zoo to head up the sign shop’s operations.

“When I first started in the sign business, we cut out vinyl letters with a die or by hand,” recalls Bareno.

By the time Bareno arrived at the zoo’s sign shop it was transitioning from computer-cut vinyl lettering and a first-generation digital printer to true photographic wide-format digital printing with the addition of an HP 5500.

Now, everything is printed, from small, temporary signs to giant banners. The shop houses the two HP 5500s, and a Seal Image 600, with all printing driven by Onyx PosterShop. Bareno buys all of his materials and equipment from LexJet.

The bulk of the shop’s work is for special events and occasions, like weddings and reunions that are held at the zoo, though other sign types, such as directional and concession signs, will go through production in sporadic, large batches.

Animal identification signs are updated and added as necessary. The zoo’s visual services department provides photos, and then the sign shop designs, prints, laminates, and installs them. Most of the graphics are printed on LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl and LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl w/ PreLume, and laminated with 3.2 Mil GraphicsGuard UV Luster w/ PreLume.

Bareno says their biggest learning curve was with lamination. He credits a recent edition of this e-newsletter with helping him overcome a curling problem he was having with laminated graphics.

“For awhile we were having problems with the laminate, and I found out through LexJet’s e-newsletter that we weren’t letting the ink dry long enough before lamination. We were also using one of those self-healing mats to trim the graphics, and the newsletter said we should use a hard surface and a sharp X-ACTO. Sure enough, we did what the newsletter suggested, and we haven’t had a problem since,” says Bareno.

Bareno adds that they were having a problem with cold laminates sticking to the laminator as they ran graphics through it. Bareno found that re-using the backing paper by running it underneath eliminated this problem. “It just saves time and trouble so that we don’t have to fight the machine.”

Beyond banners and blade signs, most of the graphics are installed on PVC, plastic, and plexiglass substrates. Bareno says they switched to plexiglass from PVC for the animal identification signs because they found the graphics adhered better to the plexiglass, increasing their durability and decreasing the natural tendency of park-goers to pick at the edges.

Currently, the sign shop is in the midst of updating all the park signs, and supplementing the directional sign system with 3x7 banners.

“We try to make it as easy as possible for visitors, and in some areas you just need additional signage to help them along. We try to be sensitive to that, which is one reason we put the directional banners up. We play around with placement, size, and the graphics until we find something that works best for people coming to the park,” says Bareno.