Avontuur × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study



From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.

A July study.

Avontuur Travel International designs customized itineraries and expert-led journeys from offices in Sarasota and Naples, Florida. Michael Distler founded the firm in 2021 after more than fifteen years in luxury travel within the Virtuoso network, and the grounding behind that is the kind you'd want in a travel planner: a boyhood spent boating and fishing, then a hospitality degree earned while living in Switzerland. Their About page defines the name for you – avontuur, “A remarkable or exciting experience, an adventure.”

The wordmark is what stopped us. It opens on a burnt-orange A built from two diagonal strokes and a short base, the crossbar left off, so the letter reads as a tent pitched at the head of the line. VONTUUR follows in white capitals so thin they nearly whisper, the V tucked close against the orange. Those hairline strokes gave us pause; a hot die can swallow lines that fine, and we sat with the artwork a while before trusting the contrast to hold under the press. It holds, mostly. The open A carries the weight either way.

The mark, as found

Avontuur wordmark with its triangular initial

Pressed lengthwise

Arizona answered the A's burnt orange, and Blueberry the deep blue-violet their header floats it on. On black, the mark goes down in gold.

Avontuur leather luggage tags in Arizona orange, blueberry and gold on black

The Eye of Africa

Their homepage greets you with “ADVENTURES AWAIT. ONCE IN A LIFETIME, LUXURY TRAVEL.” and the site names the Eye of Africa – that vast ringed formation in the Sahara – as the inspiration behind the logo. The companion takes both at their word. Three concentric circles stand for the desert rings, with the open A at dead center and ADVENTURES AWAIT reading around the band.

Eye of Africa design made for Avontuur, pressed in three rings

Avontuur Eye of Africa leather luggage tags in orange, blueberry and gold on black

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If you're Avontuur and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.