Fairfax County Government × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

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

An August study.

Fairfax County runs all the big machinery a large county runs. Tucked inside it is a small operation we found ourselves rooting for: the mobility management team, which teaches a resident to ride the bus for the first time and trains neighbors to serve as transportation navigators, the people who know which ride exists and how to get it. The county calls this work a "critical bridge" between its transportation services and the people who need them, and for once the institutional phrase is exactly right.

Their transportation guide states the aim in one line: "personal independence, choice and full participation regardless of age, disability or economic status." We read that sentence and started sketching.

The mark, as found

The official lockup pairs the county seal with the words Fairfax County, Virginia. The county's own guidance asks that the seal stay complete and unchanged, and warns that below three quarters of an inch its lettering blurs; every press in this study keeps it whole and comfortably larger than that.

The official Fairfax County Government mark as found

Pressed

The lockup runs long, so it takes the lengthwise luggage tags. Navy blueberry for the deep blue the county wears across its site, and golden arizona for the yellow at the heart of the seal. A black tag completes the family and carries the gold foil, which hands the seal's lettering back its shine.

You can get there from here

There is an old joke where a traveler asks for directions and the local shakes his head: you can't get there from here. Mobility management exists to retire that joke. We tried companion sketches with buses in them and every one slid toward clip art, so the buses left and the journey stayed. What remains is a route that begins as dashes at a small map marker reading FROM HERE and turns solid where it crosses a footbridge. It ends through an open door, one small dot resting inside the threshold. Above it all runs the promise, YOU CAN GET THERE.

Black and white There From Here stamping die design for Fairfax County mobility management

On the arizona catchall tray the emblem gets the full stage, pressed deep at the center of the golden tan where keys and farecards land at the end of the day.

There From Here design blind debossed on an arizona leather catchall tray

For the kit that moves

A toiletry stack in navy blueberry over dark espresso, the county blue grounded in the brown that lives in the seal. The emblem sits small at the corner of each bag, a maker's mark for people whose working day happens in motion.

There From Here design blind debossed on blueberry and dark espresso leather toiletry bags

Keychains in golden arizona and navy blueberry. House keys are the oldest everyday proof of independence, and the fob carries the promise right beside them.

There From Here design blind debossed on arizona and blueberry leather keychains

Field notes

Wrap journals in the seal's warm poppy red and in navy blueberry, the emblem pressed generously into the corner. Travel training runs on notes, the stop that works and the transfer that beats the long way around. A journal that says you can get there from here felt like the right place to keep them.

There From Here design blind debossed on poppy red and blueberry leather journals

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.