I mentioned last night that I love the idea of redesigning the Blackhawks logo, especially as a literal hawk, but I have some issues with this design. So, I decided to scribble up my take, to put my money where my mouth is.
While the warriorhead logo is problematic, I really enjoy it aesthetically. Rather than being angry or severe, the face is almost serene. I feel like the redesign that's getting passed around loses that, and in fact, loses the tone of the logo entirely. There are so many sharp edges that things start looking distorted to me and it gives off a "darker and edgier" vibe - it reminds me of that ill-advised Looney Tunes reboot WB tried back in 2005. Shifting the skintone to the beak was a good idea, but the combination of the golden color with spiky accents calls to mind the Anaheim Ducks logo. We're dealing with an original six franchise here; last thing someone should think of is a California team added in the nineties.
For my redesign, I tried to keep the four feathers pretty much intact, just fanned them out and changed the top stems into separate feathers for more of a plumage and less of a headpiece feel. One thing I kept in mind the whole time was that this shouldn't be Tommy Hawk - SJ Sharkie isn't the shark in San Jose's logo, Fin isn't the orca in Vancouver's logo, etc. Tommy now has a pure yellow beak with a soft shape, so I gave this guy a black tip and a characteristic raptor hook. Plus, Tommy Hawk used to have a black tip to his beak, but it was removed when he got redesigned. I thought salvaging an old design element to include in a new design was... I dunno, cute? I liked the idea of it, at least.
The base of the head and the delineation between beak and feathers are soft and curvy, mimicking the hair and facial structure of the warriorhead logo. I'm not sure how I feel about the white around the eye - I wanted to make sure the eye popped out against the field of black, but it looks a bit out of place as is. Adding a white outline to the entire logo would probably mirror that nicely and bring everything together. I'll have to mock it up later. I'm also open to suggestions, of course, on how to emphasize the eye without making it incongruous with the rest of the logo.
That goes for the design in general as well - comments and critiques are welcome. :)