The Woodcock Has Landed: A Conversation with Alex Tomlinson

The new Chicago Ornithological Society logo, designed by Alex Tomlinson.

words by Morgan Harpster

For a bird that is notoriously difficult to spot, the American Woodcock makes a fantastic logo for our organization. Likely first tapped in the 1940s by Dr. William J. Beecher, the timberdoodle has remained our mascot through 1989, when Walter Marcisz designed a new logo to correspond with the launching of The Chicago Birder, and on to the present day as we embrace a new iteration of our beloved bird. As we unveiled the new logo for the Chicago Ornithological Society (COS) online and at our annual fundraiser on August 26, we were proud to hold on to the timberdoodle as our guiding star.

Alex Tomlinson, the designer of our new logo, kept the grace and simplicity of this humble, unique bird close in mind. Tomlinson describes himself as someone who has always loved nature, but who fell into this area of graphic design when he applied for a job at the National Audubon Society. He considered this work an opportunity to use his considerable skills to do good in the world. During that time, he built confidence drawing birds and found that this experience was transformative, imbuing more meaning and purpose into his work. Since that time, much of his art has been bird-themed. For example, Bird Mail collects bird-centered logos from various postal services, ColorChirp shows unique graphic translations of bird songs agreed upon by a user survey, and Whimbrel Caps provides a beautiful bird alphabet.

These days Tomlinson describes knowing and seeing birds as “a joy I could not live without.” COS was lucky to bring this award-winning designer into this project. Earlier this year, we contacted him with the top-secret information that COS was looking to update our logo design. Tomlinson was aware of COS through the stories of Monty and Rose, the legendary Chicago piping plovers, and got started right away.

Walter Marcisz holding his original American Woodcock illustration, which served as the COS logo from 1989 to 2023.

“The first thought that crossed my mind was, That is such a wonderful illustration!,” said Tomlinson. He noted, however, that with all illustrations, detail is often lost when it is resized for different applications. For an updated logo, we needed a design that could work for all our publication and media needs without losing detail. The woodcock, after all, is a detailed bird, its wings containing an intricate variety of whites, browns, and tans that serve as excellent camouflage but also make the bird a beautiful sight to behold. At the same time, Tomlinson wanted to avoid leaning too far into simplicity, stating that many logos recently have leaned towards simple line drawings or outlines. While these are visually appealing and sleek, this trend can go in and out of fashion, and he wanted the COS logo to always remain relevant.

Tomlinson also wished to bring a Chicago-specific flair to the logo. He said that Chicago is a rare city in that it flies its flag proudly and often: to him, this is the sign of a well-designed flag. This links back to the issue of simplicity vs. detail: when flags or logos have a large number of mixed design elements, this can create a crowded look. The ideal look is unique and detailed, but not too detailed.

“My two concerns were to draw a nice, graceful woodcock and to create something that was specific to Chicago,” said Tomlinson. While this sounds like a easy project, this was tricky to get right. Tomlinson described the woodcock, who is also referred to as the timberdoodle or hokumpoke, as a loveable bird, and we agree. But this bird can also be, frankly, a bit goofy upon first viewing. Highlighting the grace behind those literal side eyes and long, often downward pointing beak took some work, but in the end was beautifully done. Integrating Chicago was a matter of balance. The Chicago stars were a clear choice; however, including all four may have overwhelmed the bird in the logo. Instead, Tomlinson opted for a single star situated to the right of the bird, under its beak and proud, puffed out breast, as if newly discovered by the bird itself.

The new COS timberdoodle, designed by Alex Tomlinson.

One other consideration when designing the new logo was ensuring it stood out but squared with the designs used by other conservation and bird-related groups. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, for example, uses a side profile of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in flight, with a pop of red and yellow. Georgia Audubon depicts a Red-headed Woodpecker clinging to a slim branch, again with a pop of red, while the larger National Audubon Society’s logo is a simple line drawing of a Great Egret in flight. Tomlinson thought our logo should share a similar theme to these, but still stand on its own merits. In it we have our American Woodcock, as always, standing proudly with its tail seemingly ready to perform the woodcock's signature bopping dance. We see detail in the wings and eyes, bringing to mind the very detailed depictions of the past two logos. The beak points slightly down, highlighting the bright red single Chicago star. Finally, a pop of blue serves as the backdrop, much like our beloved Chicago River does on the city flag and in our lives here in Chicago.

“It was an incredible honor to have been able to work on something for an organization that has been advocating for birds for over a century,” says Tomlinson. We cannot thank him enough for bringing our logo into a new era, while we all step forward to continue our work to protect birds, conserve their habitats, and teach the Chicagoland area and beyond about the love of birds.