General Goods – a Coolidge Corner leather collection

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

An August study.

Coolidge Corner is named for a store – Coolidge & Brother, the general store that opened in 1857 where Harvard Street meets Beacon and for decades was the only business in north Brookline. We spent the month pressing that corner's history into a small leather collection we call GENERAL GOODS.

First, the marquee. The movie house up the block opened in 1933 promising its patrons they could "abandon all care", and we set the phrase in lights for the goods that leave town – luggage tags, and a toiletry kit in night black over deep espresso. The black tag carries the marquee's own light in gold foil; the red and the pale greige tags press blind.

The ABANDON ALL CARE marquee stamp design from the General Goods leather collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the ABANDON ALL CARE marquee from the General Goods collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with the ABANDON ALL CARE marquee from the General Goods collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

Next, the corner itself, drawn like a page from a town atlas. Harvard and Beacon cross with the trolley rails running down Beacon at street level, and a solid star marks the block where the old store stood in 1857. The plan goes into the base of a golden tan catchall tray – the place your pockets empty at the end of a day in the district.

The Harvard and Beacon street-map stamp design from the General Goods leather collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

An arizona leather catchall tray stamped with the Coolidge Corner street map from the General Goods collection.

Then, a seal for the keychains. Brookline voted down annexation to Boston in 1873 and has been its own town ever since; a ring of keys felt like the right place to hang that fact. Forest green for the streetcar line, navy for the town.

The Brookline Its Own Town 1873 stamp design from the General Goods leather collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather keychains stamped with the Brookline 1873 seal from the General Goods collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

And finally, a shelf ticket for the journals: USE IT WELL, with the collection's name set beneath the rule, stamped small in the lower corner of the cover the way a maker signs work. One journal in deep wine, one in warm tan, both pressed blind.

The USE IT WELL shelf-ticket stamp design from the General Goods leather collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

Two leather journals stamped with USE IT WELL from the General Goods collection of Coolidge Corner, Massachusetts.

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'd like anything here made real, or anything changed – say hello through our contact page.