Grueninger Travel Service of Fort Wayne × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Grueninger Travel Service of Fort Wayne is a boutique agency in Fort Wayne, Indiana, family owned since Jim Reffeitt bought it from Othmar Grueninger in 1974 and kept the founder's name on the door. The desk books everything from all-inclusive weeks to custom Europe itineraries. Deb Hanauer worked there for much of her life, and a college trip to Alaska settled the question for her; travel could be a career, and in 1992 she and Gary bought the agency. After the fiftieth anniversary came the third generation, Joe on the casino side and Julia running leisure.
On the current site the name rides in plain white serif over a darkened photograph, type that would vanish the moment you lifted it onto a white page. Fifty years of family ownership have left a visual estate of exactly one asset, the words themselves. Which is honest, in its way; a family that keeps the founder's surname through three changes of hands is telling you where its loyalties sit. So we pressed the type as found, then drew the mark we think the name has earned.
As found
The mark this study proposes
We drew a stack of three suitcases, one case for each generation of ownership, with GRUENINGER TRAVEL set above the stack and SINCE 1974 beneath it. Our first sketch made the cases equal width, and the pile read as freight on a dock. Tapering it, largest case at the base, gave it the posture of a family. Whether the small top case reads as Joe and Julia or simply as the newest bag we leave to the viewer; the date underneath does the anchoring either way.
Pressed
Deep dark espresso follows the black-and-white editorial calm of their current pages, and deep forest green answers the olive-grove hillside behind the homepage name. Black carries the gold foil.
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 Grueninger Travel Service of Fort Wayne and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.