Mandai Wildlife Reserve 5 Years On: Taming a Sprawling Brand Landscape

The logos combine like a Power Rangers role call 🐦🦭👀🐻🐒

Close to five years after Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s brand launch, it celebrated its grand opening in May 2026 following the completion of Rainforest Wild Adventure East, the final milestone in a 10-year transformation plan that transformed Mandai into Singapore’s premier wildlife and nature destination.

With headlines appearing every other month about a new exhibit, attraction, or programme, Mandai Wildlife Reserve required a flexible visual identity capable of unifying an ever-growing ecosystem of experiences across its 126-hectare site.

A Packed Brand Identity

Designed by multi-disciplinary brand practice Anak (part of The Secret Little Agency), Mandai’s expansive brand system combines watercolour illustrations, animal photography and vibrant colours fitting of its tagline “Come to Life”.

“Our brand system was inspired by Mandai itself. As a pioneer of the open zoo concept, where cageless habitats create the most naturalistic environment for both wildlife and humans, Mandai has long been renowned for its immersive beauty. Built on the idea of coming closer to nature, everything in our brand system draws you towards Mandai’s captivating world.”
-Anak

Mandai’s masterbrand logo uses a customised typeface developed with Colophon Foundry called Mandai Value Serif. The typeface “combines warmth and openness with a classic sensibility that befits a zoological institution of Mandai’s calibre and level of commitment.”

Mandai Value Serif is paired with a geometric sans-serif typeface, creating visual contrast across logos, signage, and marketing materials.

Mandai’s logos for each of its five flagship wildlife parks highlight a signature animal which visitors can look forward to seeing. The sans-serif geometric wordmarks pay homage to the Singapore Zoological Gardens logo of the 1990s. They also contrast the serif Masterbrand positioned above them.

Singapore Zoo

A lively orangutan swings from a vine on the logo of Singapore Zoo, evoking nostalgic memories of the zoo’s most recognised species. The primate’s outstretched hand also represents the park’s connectedness to the natural world.

Surprisingly, the previous Zoo logo was just a handwritten-style wordmark without any animal graphic (not even a simple zebra print!). Of course, that did not stop it from becoming a world-class attraction, but the visual identity really made the Zoo look like a lower-tier destination.

The zoo logo of the 1990s was even weirder, featuring two motifs of elephants and no other animals. Was it trying to compete with Thailand for tourism dollars?

While orangutans are not native to Singapore, they have become synonymous with the Singapore Zoo thanks to Ah Meng, who was the poster girl of the zoo until her death in 2008. It is only fitting that the zoo’s logo features an orangutan.

Night Safari

Carrying on the legacy of the celebrated Night Safari logo, the new logomark evolves from the original by depicting a dramatic pair of eyes of the clouded leopard peering out from the moonlit foliage. The mysterious world of wildlife beckons under the night sky.

As the world’s first nocturnal zoo, the Night Safari redefined the zoo experience, where visitors can spend an entire day and night with animals at Mandai. While the Singapore Zoo’s former logo was a bore, Night Safari’s meant business.

A pair of blue eyes greet visitors at the Night Safari entrance. That is the only part of the logo which is illuminated, which leaves an impression so deep and accurately represents what visitors are about to see. Like a predator locking eyes at you as their next meal, it is a logo so good that the crime of stretching the wordmark can be forgiven.

The new logo looks tamer than its predecessor, maybe even a bit goofy with the angling of the eyes. Contrast this with the old one which looked mysterious and menacing.

Although the logo changed from hunting to a clouded leopard playing hide-and-seek, the new logo fits cohesively with the Mandai’s brand positioning of family-friendly fun. No creepy logos now.

River Wonders

A serene manatee in the River Wonders logomark welcomes all to dive into the fascinating realm of freshwater life. The graceful forms of three small fish create the gentle current of the river which leads to a voyage of discovery in a wonder-filled world.

Formerly known as River Safari, the previous logo was a serviceable adventure-themed wordmark with a simple outline of a fish. The new logo adopts a calmer personality. A manatee glides alongside three fish, creating a visually harmonious look.

Bird Paradise

In a symphony of colours in flight, the logomark of Bird Paradise pays tribute to its heritage (Jurong Bird Park) and depicts a macaw soaring through the sky. With its wings spread, the parrot’s energetic mid-flight pose recalls the historically distinctive walk-in aviaries. The new Bird Paradise in Mandai Wildlife Reserve is also designed to offer richly immersive experiences.

Since 2006, Jurong Bird Park’s logo has been represented by three birds in red, yellow, and blue. Bird Paradise’s macaw logo also uses the same three colours, which is a nice tribute to its past look. The Bird Paradise logo cleverly preserves this heritage through its macaw illustration, which incorporates the same colour palette.

An earlier iteration of the Jurong Bird Park logo was tower-shaped, perhaps a nod to flight and the sky. Sadly, this lockup has not been used since 2010, and would be difficult to implement in the digital age. Still, to better differentiate the different park brands, signages at the Bird Paradise could reference this style to celebrate the park’s heritage.

Rainforest Wild

The biodiversity of Mandai will be enriched by the new Rainforest Wild, where exciting experiences await at every level of the forest. The dynamism of the rainforest is captured on the park’s logomark which features a sun bear - a native of Asia’s tropical forests - playfully ascending into the treetops in search of adventure.

Unfortunately, the newest park of the Reserve has the messiest logo. The dark green leaves on the tree clash with the dark grey body of the sun bear, and can be confusing when the logo is viewed when shrunk. The leaves could have been placed below the sun bear instead for greater contrast.

Mandai Wildlife Reserve

The destination logo combines the identities of all five parks into a single mark, with the Singapore Zoo and Rainforest Wild logos mirrored for visual balance. It looks great, especially with the Night Safari logo in the middle staring (not ferociously) at you.

While there is nothing disastrously wrong with these logos, bolder design choices could push this brand identity to greater highs. But cohesion appears to be the priority here, such that no one logo looks more important than the other, including the zoo’s. The other parks are positioned as full-fledged experiences (along with separate ticketing), not extensions to the zoo.

Additional Logos

Apart from the wildlife parks, Mandai boasts two indoor attractions aimed at kids, Exploria and Curiosity Cove, each with squarish landscape logos in the same style as the parks.

Mandai has also developed corporate identities for Mandai Nature, its conservation organisation and Mandai X, its venture-building arm. Together, these brands demonstrate a carefully considered architecture that extends well beyond visitor-facing attractions.

Applications: The Mane Attraction

Supporting the logos is a remarkable visual library containing more than 800 illustrated and photographic assets depicting the flora and fauna found throughout Mandai.

The most distinctive feature is the combination of wildlife photography with hand-painted watercolour illustrations, creating a playful effect resembling a scrapbooking project from a talented artist.

The illustrations can also be found on other brand touchpoints, including Mandai’s website.

A Masterclass in Brand Building

Mandai deeply cares about crafting a cohesive brand experience, exemplified by its logo designs and strict adherence to using the right typefaces for every touchpoint ranging from wayfinding signs to web interfaces.

Five years after its launch, the system shows no signs of dilution. New attractions, programmes, and sub-brands continue to be introduced while maintaining impressive visual consistency.

This level of discipline not only reflects Anak’s expertise in building large scale brands but also executional commitment from Mandai. Mandai’s willingness to share its design process publicly further demonstrates confidence in the strength of its identity.

These are the little things that make Mandai one of the best wildlife and nature destinations in the world.

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