Knight MacKay Morrow LLC × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
An August study.
Knight MacKay Morrow is a trial firm out of Kansas City that introduces itself in four words: "Seasoned Attorneys. Established Results." It fields more than thirty attorneys from six offices, with licenses spread across as many states. The whole identity rests on a heavy white KMM monogram beside three quiet bands of color, and we admire a firm willing to let four words and three stripes do the talking.
The page that held us longest belongs to Allison Greenfield, a Member of the firm. She is the attorney who gets called in the weeks before trial, when a sprawling record has to be absorbed fast and the themes sharpened under a compressed clock. That working life runs between the deposition room and the courtroom by way of the airport, and it is the life this study is packed for.
The mark, as found
Three letters built like architecture, wide and heavy. On the firm's own materials the monogram stands reversed in white against dark photography; here it is set black on white, the way every die begins.
Pressed
We ran the monogram lengthwise along a trio of tags chosen to rebuild the firm's icon band by band. A deep green that leans teal stands in for the middle band, and a pale sea-blue for the lowest. The black tag carries the gold foil, the one finish we keep for black leather, and the monogram sits on it much as it sits on the firm's own dark fields.
The record, resolved to one line
Fourteen ruled lines, ragged like a dense page, merge in stages until a single heavier line runs out clean, the firm's name set small beneath it. It is our portrait of the work Allison's own page describes: a thousand pages read down to the line that carries the case. We pressed it generously into the lower corner of a pair of wrap journals, one matte black and one deep green. On black the unfoiled press reads as pure shadow relief, which suits a firm that keeps its confidence quiet.
Trial ready
A toiletry bag is honest trial equipment; it gets packed when the call comes and lives in hotel bathrooms until the verdict. So its maker's mark is a travel label – the three bands up top and TRIAL READY in heavy capitals, with the firm's name set small beneath a rule. We debossed it into the lower right corner of a stack in black over dark espresso, with no gold anywhere. A wash bag should whisper.
The firm key
Six offices means a great many doors. We tried the monogram on the fob first, and its wide letters fought the narrow face; the key won. Its bow is the firm's square icon with the three bands ruled in black, and its bit is cut in stepped teeth. The design goes wordless, because the bands are the signature. The duo is pressed on a deep green fob and a pale sea-blue one, the two colors the icon actually wears.
"One firm, one vision"
The tray takes the seal. ONE FIRM ONE VISION curves around the top of the ring with the firm's name answering below, and the three bands fill the inner disc edge to edge, a flag struck in relief. A catchall tray is where keys and a watch land at the end of a day spent between one city and the next. We pressed the seal deep into the center of the golden tan tray; that leather tends to render a shade sunnier than it is in the hand.
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 Knight MacKay Morrow and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.