Ripley Hawk Watch Visual Identity
The hawk watch operates out of four main sites. Each layer in the design represents Lake Erie, the lake plain, the Chautauqua Ridge, and the sky. I chose a Red-tailed Hawk to represent the hawk watch as it is one of the more frequent species and also a species that breeds abundantly in Chautauqua County.
I had a few different ideas that I wanted to explore while creating this logo. At first, I tried using the shape of a hawk's tail, but decided it wasn't clear enough. Then I tried a few versions using Roger Tory Peterson's raptor silhouettes (Peterson was from Chautauqua County) but they ended up feeling too corporate. I decided to try a hand-drawn version as a nod to field guide illustrations and chose to do a view form underneath the bird like one would see if they were hawk watching. This direction felt best and I decided to continue exploring it.
I knew I still wanted to reference the four hawk watch sites and the four geographical features of the area, so I did that using four colors. The colors represent other features of the landscape around the hawk watch. The dark purple refers to the Concord grape vineyards that surround the hawk watch, the orange is a nod to the color of a Red-tailed Hawks tail, the yellow is for the farmlands, and the light blue is for the sky.
Historically, the Ripley Hawk Watch has been designated as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society. The hawk watch operates from March to May and is ran by volunteer counters who document the raptors that migrate through this region to their breeding grounds. Covid caused the hawk watch to shut down for a few years, but in 2024 it is looking to recruit new members and conduct daily counts once more.
Logo Ideation
For practical use, I made a horizontal version of the logo as well for use on signage, merchandise, and anywhere else where the primary logo would not easily fit. The same concepts of the primary logo are present, but represented differently visually.
