Peter Parnall

The artist behind the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s logo

By Diane Tessaglia-Hymes

Artist Peter Parnall near his home in Waldoboro, Maine.

Photo by Diane L. Tessaglia-Hymes

I have been fascinated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s logo for a long time. In college, before I was aware of the Lab’s renown, I was struck by how the logo captured the essence of birds in a simple yet elegant design. It made me want to be part of such an organization. Years later, after I started working at the Lab, I learned that it was designed by Peter Parnall, an illustrator best known for his children’s books. He has written or illustrated more than 80 books, including Everyone Needs a Rock, I’m in Charge of Celebrations, and Hawk, I’m Your Brother. At the dedication ceremony for the Lab’s Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in 2003, architect Alan Chimacoff mentioned how the shape of the new building was inspired by the Lab’s logo.

Wanting to know more about what, in turn, inspired the Lab’s logo, I traveled to Maine to visit with Peter Parnall on his farm in mid-coast Maine. Parnall is an interesting man with eclectic interests. Although not a birder, he is interested in birds?particularly hawks and owls, but he also likes horses and nature. He does bonsai, creates rock gardens, likes guns and shooting, and restores and rides motorcycles. He is outspoken and a good storyteller. We sat on the back deck of his house, overlooking his bonsai and rock gardens, while he recounted stories and adventures and allowed me a glimpse into the person behind the Lab’s symbol.

Diane Tessaglia-Hymes is the Lab’s senior graphic designer.

Peter Parnall?s prints of a Peregrine Falcon sitting on eggs helped raise money for The Peregrine Fund in 1975

How did you come to design the Lab’s logo?

Before I was asked to design the logo, Doug Lancaster, then director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, contacted me about doing a print to raise money for the Lab. So in 1975 I did an illustration of a Peregrine Falcon sitting on eggs. Doug and I signed about 1,000 prints and we made $90,000 or something like that. That money went to support The Peregrine Fund’s reintroduction program. About six months after that I did the logo.

Did you have a particular species in mind when you designed the Lab’s logo?

Nope. Just flight. And cruising. The Lab of Ornithology’s trademark was one of my favorite ones to do. In a way, the Lab’s logo was a little more illustrative than some other logos I’ve done?with the bird and the wing and all that. Most people when they stylize any part of animal life, they generally make it too complicated.

How did you get started in art?

I went to Cornell in 1954 because I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I had a little too much fun. Got pneumonia when I took my mid-terms in freshman year and flunked them all. After I left Cornell, I went out West to train horses. Came my father’s birthday, so I drew him a picture of a horse. He hung it on his wall and told me I should go back to school and be an artist. So I got in the car and went down to the Pratt Institute with the picture of the horse. They’d already given the entrance exam so I saw the dean of admissions and told him, “You might as well let me in because I’m coming here anyway next year. Why waste a year of my time?” I went there for two years. Got a little bored, so I quit.

The first job I got was art director of a little magazine called Travel Magazine. Meanwhile, I had a freelance business in advertising. Advertising was fun. Great fun. My clients included Mr. Potato Head, G.I. Joe, restaurants, and all kinds of things. But later I got tired of convincing people they should buy stuff they don’t need.

Your art has a combination of Southwestern and Asian feeling to it. I would have expected that you would be living in Arizona right now.

Hmm! (Laughs). I was raised in the Mojave Desert, a little place called Willow Springs. It was an old stage-coach and ore wagon stop. There were four adobe houses, a tavern, and a corral, and that’s it.

I was at a show once in Ann Arbor (Michigan) and some Asian students there asked me what Asian printmakers I had studied. Which is flattering. And I couldn’t really name one in particular. But I’ve always been interested in Asian things.

Do you take photographs as resources for doing drawings? Do you draw from life?

Well, I know the birds, so I don’t need anything. Maybe some feathers or something. If you draw a bird that has only three primary feathers?you’d better have the right spots on it, you know.

What is your favorite thing to do? Well pen and ink, first of all. And I guess, the birds. I had been working on a carving of an angel out in the workshop downstairs for about a year. Almost ended up in the wood stove several times. And I finally decided the other day, the hell with it. I’m going to do a pen and ink drawing of that. Pen and ink, pen and ink. Isn’t anything I like doing more than that.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu