Design with a Purpose

Standing in sharp contrast to the realistically portrayed animals on the Tree of Life are the artistic interpretations of the modern-day villagers who live and work on Discovery Island. The equatorial architecture that dots the island is adorned with brilliantly colored animal forms in styles inspired by folk art from Bali, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

At first glance, it may appear that the animals were chosen at random, but as with so many things designed by the artists at Walt Disney Imagineering, they were each chosen and placed with a specific purpose in mind.

Each of the buildings on Discovery Island features a particular grouping of animals chosen to represent a central theme. For example, Island Mercantile is a warehouse carrying a wide variety of products. All the creatures depicted in and around this shop are animals that work: camels, elephants, bees, beavers and the like.

Notice that the bee motif is prevalent in the area of the shop where sweets are sold:

Each room of the Island Mercantile carries a slightly different style and focuses on a different animal or group of animals. The elephant room is particularly beautiful:

In the beaver room, the POS and fixtures are formed from gnawed logs and branches. Animal designs are even worked into the tools used in the warehouse, like the beaver pulley seen below:

Or the fish paddles no doubt used to propel the fish boat across the Discovery River, taking goods back and forth for trade.

Nearby on Discovery Island is Creature Comforts. This location takes a different approach. Since the shop's wares consist primarily of clothing in different styles, the animal group depicted here includes those with unique patterns or coloring: zebras, giraffes, wasps, snakes and ladybugs:

On the other side of the island, Disney Outfitters follows yet another path. Here, products have been brought from "the four corners of the globe."

The animals in this shop also hail from all directions: north, south, east and west. Notice how the animals are different in each corner of the shop, on the totems as well as the murals, corresponding to their direction of origin. The northern corner includes polar bears, caribou and wolves. The southern corner depicts animals primarily from South Africa: lions, hippos and antelope. The eastern corner features Asian elephants and kangaroos, while the western corner has bison, pumas and jackrabbits.