Signs as one of a kind as the animals they stand beside.
Five custom exhibits for the Philadelphia Zoo, designed, fabricated and installed by Martino Signs.
The Philadelphia Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the country, and for Dave Martino it is familiar ground, a place he spent years of weekends with his kids. Over the past two years the zoo brought Martino Signs five ideas: an entrance sign for Flamingo Cove, a pair of Ankole horns you can wear, a Jeep you can sit in, a rhino, and a giraffe that measures the real ones.
Each one arrived as a drawing from the zoo's graphic designers. Martino turned the drawings into technical blueprints, picked the materials, built them in the Folcroft shop and set them in concrete.
"The Philadelphia Zoo is one of the first zoos in the country, and it's a special zoo because it's very close to me. I've raised my kids there."
Dave Martino, founder
Eleven minutes with Dave, the crew and 1,300 animals.
Tap a time to jump the film there. Tap a name to read about that build.
Walk the zoo the way the film does.
Every pin is a Martino fabrication standing on the grounds today. Pick one to jump to its story.
- 01Flamingo CoveEntrance sign, reader boards, wayfinding
- 02Ankole hornsPhoto op, African Plains
- 03Giraffe height marker18 ft pole sign
- 04Rhino14 ft post and panel
- 05Safari JeepPhoto op, 8 inches thick
Illustrative map. Not to scale.
An entrance that will not swell, warp or fade.
The zoo had beautiful artwork for Flamingo Cove and no technical drawings. Martino produced the blueprints, then built the entrance sign, the Enter and Exit markers and the changeable reader boards. The previous signs here were particle board; they got wet, swelled and failed.
These are 3/8 inch aluminum, painted with Matthews paint and clear coated, with digital prints applied on top and 1 inch acrylic letters mechanically fastened. The reader boards open with specialty locking bolts so staff can change copy in minutes and visitors cannot.
- 3/8 in. aluminum
- Matthews paint and clear coat
- Digital print graphics
- 1 in. acrylic cutout letters
- Vandal resistant reader boards
"They had a graphic arts department, but not a technical design team. We have both. In layman's terms, we can make pretty pictures and detailed blueprints."
Dave Martino
Three pound horns, forty pound solution.
The zoo wanted a photo op where visitors put their head between a pair of Ankole-Watusi horns. They supplied fiberglass replicas, light, detailed and far too flimsy to bolt to anything. Martino filled each horn with epoxy resin around a steel bar and three 3/4 inch bolts, turning a 3 pound shell into a 40 pound solid that would not break.
The original plan put the display on a movable platform; on the zoo's sloped gravel that was a tipping hazard with kids around, so Martino ran the aluminum down into concrete footings in front of the exhibit, in good light, with the real Ankole behind it.
- 3/8 in. aluminum backer
- Automotive paint and clear coat
- Resin filled fiberglass horns on steel
- Set in concrete
"We're afraid with the weight of that it could injure somebody. So safety was our primary focus here. We have a lot of children."
Dave Martino
An 18 foot giraffe that grows with the herd.
This is a pole sign with the pole hidden behind an 18 foot giraffe. The neck is a ruler. Three giraffe heads, one for each animal in the exhibit, slide up and down it, so as the baby grows the zoo moves its head and visitors see exactly how tall each one is.
It stands in front of a tree, so from the path it looks like it is eating the leaves, with the real giraffes behind it. 3/8 inch aluminum, painted and clear coated, digital print on top, set in concrete.
- 18 ft tall
- Hidden steel pole
- 3/8 in. aluminum
- Three adjustable heads
- Set in concrete
"The Philadelphia Zoo designers who designed this, I have to say initially I didn't like their design. But when I actually seen it, I was like, wow, that hit the mark. Kudos to them."
Dave Martino
Fourteen feet of rhino, and you cannot see the legs holding it up.
At over 14 feet long and 7 feet tall, the rhino is a post and panel sign that does not look like one. The posts run down behind the rhino's own legs. A piece this size has to be built in sections, so the seams were placed where they disappear into the artwork or accent it.
It is 6063 aluminum, 3/8 inch, Matthews paint and clear coat, cured and gassed out before the 3M print went on. The print is laminated with a textured floor graphic laminate for two reasons: it takes more abuse, and it kills the glare so a family's photo is not a flash of sunlight. Set in concrete.
- 6063 aluminum, 3/8 in.
- Matthews paint and clear coat
- 3M print with textured anti glare laminate
- Hidden posts
- Over 14 ft long
"Knowing that people are taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures every month with our products makes us feel good. So we want to make sure that they last."
Dave Martino
A Jeep, eight inches thick.
The safari exhibit needed a Jeep that visitors could sit in for a photo. A real one would not fit the space or the budget, so Martino compressed a full size Jeep into a flat display about 8 inches deep. The body is a 3/8 inch aluminum frame, routed and edge finished so no one gets cut, painted with Matthews automotive paint.
What makes it read as real: an actual Jeep bumper, grille, fenders and brush guard, and real tires flattened and bolted on. Around the back there is a steering wheel for kids and a map of Africa showing where the exhibit's animals come from.
- 3/8 in. aluminum body
- Matthews automotive paint
- Genuine Jeep bumper, grille, fenders and tires
- Interactive rear panel
"I constantly see people taking pictures here and posting it on their social media. It's a great memory for everybody to have."
Dave Martino
Twenty five kinds of glue, and we know which one.
Every sign shop works in metal, plastic and adhesive. Martino also works in fiberglass, resin, wood, glass, steel, copper, brass and bronze, and knows how each one reacts to the others, to paint, to hardware and to a Philadelphia winter. That is the difference between a display that lasts and one that swells, peels or warps in two seasons. The zoo projects were drawn by engineers, architects and designers on staff, cut and painted in the Folcroft shop, and installed by the same crew.
"Most sign companies work with metals and plastics and glues. We have not only an understanding but a mastery of fiberglass, resins, miscellaneous parts. We have at least 25 different types of glue in the shop."
Dave Martino
"It's the things that you don't notice that's important. You get a product and it's perfect and it does what it's supposed to do. That's what you pay for."
Dave Martino
Have a sign nobody has made before?
Send us the drawing, the napkin sketch or the idea. We'll handle the blueprints, the materials and the install.
Thank you, Philadelphia Zoo. It was a joy to help bring your exhibits to life.
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