In the Margin – a Dupont Circle leather stamping study

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

An August study.

This one is for Dupont Circle, Washington, DC. We call the collection IN THE MARGIN – four stamps drawn from the circle itself and pressed into leather, from journal covers on down.

First, the namesake. On the city's ruled grid, Dupont sits the way a note sits on a page – in the margin, where the interesting things get written. So we drew a page, margin rule and writing lines. The circle stands in the margin with its avenues, the way an annotation does, and the phrase IN THE MARGIN rests on the first line.

The In the Margin notebook-page stamp design for a leather collection rooted in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

It looks genuinely beautiful in the corner of a journal – black for the ink, gray sand for the page.

Two leather journals stamped with the In the Margin design from Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

Next, we looked at the circle from above. Ten avenues radiate out of one ring, and on the map Dupont reads as an asterisk – the city marking its own footnote. It went onto the luggage tags in the circle's colors: forest green for the canopy and poppy red for the Metro, with caramel between them.

The Dupont Circle footnote stamp design for the In the Margin leather collection in Washington, DC.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the Dupont Circle footnote design from the In the Margin collection in Washington, DC.

Then, the fountain. A catchall tray is a basin, so we gave it the one from 1921 – concentric rims with the garden walks ticked around the edge, and the words its three carved figures keep set around the band: SEA STARS WIND.

The Sea Stars Wind fountain stamp design for the In the Margin leather collection in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

A leather catchall tray stamped with Sea Stars Wind from the In the Margin collection in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

The same medallion sits low on the toiletry bags, stone gray over deep espresso.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with Sea Stars Wind from the In the Margin collection in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

And finally, the morning. A keychain is the first thing a hand picks up on the way out, so it carries the day's list – five boxes under TODAY, the first already ticked. Navy for the ink, golden tan for the first light.

The Today checklist stamp design for the In the Margin leather collection in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

Two leather keychains stamped with the Today checklist from the In the Margin collection in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.