ARTIS makes us one with nature

Forming one big, happy artis family

What should or could a zoo be? And how has this changed over time?

As one of the oldest zoos in the world, ARTIS Amsterdam has been in a prime position to answer these questions since it was founded 185 years ago. As part of its evolution, ARTIS Amsterdam has branched out from being a zoo to including several museums, a Planetarium, and a fully-fledged botanical garden. However, their branches often felt separate, not part of a larger group.

ARTIS Amsterdam asked Springbok to help them create a unifying visual language and campaign to turn all their branches into one big, happy Artis family.

Focusing on similarities

We decided to highlight the similarities between species, both in behaviour as well as in appearance: human animals and non-human animals, plants and planets, microbes and marsupials.

Our range of striking portraits feature a wide range of Earthlings, using a combination of traditional photography and artificial intelligence. Each portrait is aimed at evoking the emotion we feel most strongly when visiting Artis: wonder. And we made sure it was everywhere with posters, digital screens, social media, and in cinema.

We brought this visual language to life with subtle animations and a playfully calm world of sounds. We also developed a logo that’s as lively as nature itself and screams ‘ARTIS’.

The first campaign using the new visual and sonic language was for the ARTIS Zoomeravonden (Zoo-summer evenings).