Oregon Zoo Education Center

The Oregon Zoo Education Center project demonstrates that wayfinding graphics can support the zoo’s mission to serve as a regional hub for education and youth programs. The zoo’s summer camp and teen volunteer programs are located at this new AIA award-winning education center along with exhibits, gardens, and a cafe. In addition to classrooms, the center houses meeting spaces, gardens, and a Nature Exploration Station — all designed to have a dialogue with exhibits found in the zoo itself. Knot Studio’s environmental graphic design team worked with the client and architect’s vision to create compelling exterior identity graphics resulting in a playful, yet natural design solution. Asked to also re-make the graphics for the zoo’s adjacent train station, Knot Studio invented a design that carried through with the historic nature of the train with a contemporary spin. The train station’s playful graphics reflect classic 19th-century railroad aesthetics.