Unix zip directory but excluded specific subdirectories (and everything within them)

Problem

I'm trying to zip a directory (on Unix via SSH) but I need to exclude a couple of subdirectories (and all files and directories within them). So far I have this: That doesn't seem to work though. I also tried However that will still include subdirectories within ignoreDir1 and ignoreDir2. The subdirectory structure in the directories that I want to exclude is quite substantial so I can't simply add each directory to the -x argument. Does anyone know how to do this?