Blue Water Destinations × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Blue Water Destinations is Bridget Broders's travel agency in Norfolk, Nebraska, founded in March 2016 out of a love of travel and a wish to hand more of it to other people. For two years she ran it in the evenings around a full-time job; in March 2018 the side business became the whole job. A decade into the work, she plans destination weddings and honeymoons above all, with all-inclusive beach trips to Mexico and the Caribbean and with cruises rounding out the year. She had a destination wedding of her own, so the specialty is autobiographical.
The name is what pulled us in. Norfolk sits about as far from salt water as America gets, and still the agency promises blue water in its own two words, and the logo makes good on the promise. A pale aqua world map spans the width; a dark navy plane crosses it left to right on a dashed arc, with a second, shorter arc descending on the far side. Beneath, BLUE WATER in heavy deep-navy capitals, with DESTINATIONS letterspaced wide in teal below. A mark that carries its own horizon deserves a hide to land on.
The mark, as found
Pressed
The deep navy of the wordmark and its airplane, and the pale aqua of the map behind them, sent us to a matched pair of leathers, deep navy-blue and pale sea-blue. Black carries the gold foil. We fretted over the dashed flight arc; dashes that fine like to close into a solid line under a die. On the renders they kept their gaps, and the little plane stayed legible even at tag scale.
Just married
Bridget planned her own destination wedding before she planned anyone else's, so we gave her the oldest send-off in the book, relocated to where her couples actually depart: one airplane climbing with three tin cans trailing behind it, over the words JUST MARRIED. Cans that once rattled behind a bumper now fly.
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 Blue Water Destinations and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.