Cecilia Aguerre × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

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

An August study.

Cecilia Aguerre appears early in surf history. Surf media remembers her as the first ever Reef girl, there at the beginning of the brand Santiago and Fernando Aguerre founded in 1984, back when the whole enterprise ran on what Reef still calls "a passionate pursuit of perfect days and the beauty of nature." A charmed place to enter a story. What won us over is where she went from it.

Follow her name through twenty years of San Diego coverage and a pattern emerges. In 2005 she co-chaired a SurfAid International benefit that seated world champions beside donors. The Bishop's School thanked her and Santiago as hosts of its 2019 auction, and La Jolla's museum and design gatherings keep finding her in the room. Different circles, one common point. She is the person who gets everyone in.

The mark, as found

There is no company behind that name and no logo on file, which for us is the interesting case. We started where the record starts – her name, set plainly in capitals.

Cecilia Aguerre's name set in restrained capital letters

The mark this study proposes

Then we drew the crest we think she has earned. A round mark carries her name over a small scene: one continuous line comes in from the left as open water, lifts into a single swell, and settles into the straight top of a dinner table, glasses already waiting. Our first drafts kept the wave alone, and the wave alone read like every surf mark ever cut. The table is what makes it hers. Surf on one side, hospitality on the other, one unbroken line between them.

Proposed Cecilia Aguerre crest where a Pacific wave becomes a dinner table

Pressed

The crest goes to upright luggage tags in a trio drawn from her world: pale sea-blue for the water off La Jolla and warm poppy red for the coral streak that ran through early Reef graphics. The third tag is black, and the black tag carries the gold.

Cecilia Aguerre crest pressed on pale blue, poppy red and black leather luggage tags

High tide at seven

The companion design is an invitation disguised as a tide chart. A smooth curve rises to its crest, where a small star rides the peak. Below the line, the reading is given the way a host would give it. HIGH TIDE AT SEVEN. Anyone who has watched her fill a room will recognize the forecast.

High Tide at Seven tide-chart die design for Cecilia Aguerre

On keychains it becomes a small standing invitation, pressed as a duo in warm red and navy.

High Tide at Seven blind deboss on red and navy leather keychains

For committees and weekends

The journal duo pairs pale sea-blue with pale gray sand, tide meeting beach across two covers, the design pressed generously in the corner. Committee minutes deserve a better home than a legal pad.

High Tide at Seven blind deboss on pale blue and gray-sand leather journals

The toiletry kit is the surf-trip and gala-weekend piece: a navy bag over a chestnut one, the tide mark pressed small and blind in the lower corner, the way a maker signs.

High Tide at Seven blind deboss on blueberry and Sicilian brown leather toiletry bags

At day's end

And a golden tan valet tray for the sideboard, because a host's day ends with a pocketful of gathered things. Keys and somebody's forgotten earring – the tray takes them, the tide pressed at its center.

High Tide at Seven blind deboss centered in an Arizona leather catchall tray

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