Cville Travel × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Cville Travel is André Xavier's luxury travel agency in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the name talks the way the town does; Cville is the shorthand locals actually use for the place. Xavier created the agency and still owns it, serving first-time and seasoned travelers alike. He has been in more than 42 countries by his own count, and before hanging out his shingle he kept house standards at Relais & Châteaux and Four Seasons. Silversea's ships taught him the cruise side. The method he states is plainer than the résumé behind it: “listen, advise, make suggestions and add value,” with the coordination handled where the traveler never has to see it.
The mark is what stopped us. A pale-gold Cville in mixed case rides above widely spaced serif capitals spelling TRAVEL, and the opening C is drawn as a broad circle broken at its lower curve. Through the gap a tiny airplane is already leaving, three short speed lines trailing behind it. Already gone, almost. Travel logos tend to picture the destination; this one draws the moment of departure, the circle of home opening just enough to let something small slip out. That felt worth pressing into the one object that rides along on every trip.
The mark, as found
Pressed
Warm caramel answers the gold of the wordmark, and a pale gray-sand stands in for the white ground their own pages keep. Black carries the actual gold. On white the pale #EBD279 can nearly wash out, a quiet weakness in an otherwise handsome mark; on black leather the same color turns lamplit, and the little plane reads from across a room. We debated foiling the caramel as well, then thought better of it. Gold on gold flattens, and the blind deboss lets the caramel do the warm work on its own.
Country 43
André's count stands at more than 42 countries, which leaves an obvious open page. So the companion design is a round passport stamp reading COUNTRY 43 and CVILLE TRAVEL, the kind of impression a border officer thumps down without glancing up. Which country the 43rd turns out to be is the client's business. The stamp just holds the place.
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 Cville Travel and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.