Notch Above Tours × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

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

An August study.

For Notch Above Tours.

For the warm-up, we put the mountain wordmark on the luggage tags, lengthwise, the way a ridge likes to lie. The black tag carries the gold; beside it stand a Vermont evergreen and the pale sea-blue of their own accent color.

The official Notch Above Tours mountain wordmark in black on white.

Black, pale sea-blue and forest-green leather luggage tags stamped with the Notch Above Tours mountain wordmark.

First, we cut a port-of-entry stamp for the passport covers – NOTCH ABOVE TOURS and VERMONT around the ring, the ridge with EST 1993 at the center. A passport from this company should arrive already stamped by the people who planned the trip.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A black-and-white port-of-entry stamp design created for Notch Above Tours.

Blueberry and forest-green leather passport covers stamped with the Notch Above Tours port-of-entry design.

Next, their guides' whole trade in one small picture – a gem lodged in the notch, HIDDEN GEMS beneath. We pressed it into the corner of the toiletry kits, honeyed russet over deep espresso, the colors of a Vermont October.

A black-and-white mountain and hidden gem stamp design created for Notch Above Tours.

Honeyed russet and dark espresso leather toiletry bags stamped with the Notch Above Tours hidden gems design.

Then the promise from their home page, “We make your Tour Operators and Group Leaders look like heroes”, taken at its word. We struck a small medal – the ridge on its face, HERO on the bar – and hung it where the bus keys live. The black fob carries it in gold, as medals are; its partner runs pale sea-blue.

A black-and-white HERO medal stamp design created for Notch Above Tours.

Black and pale sea-blue leather keychains stamped with the Notch Above Tours HERO medal design.

For the ones who collect the “hidden treasures, lore and legend”, we hung a single star in the notch and lettered LORE & LEGEND on the banner below. A journal is where the legend gets written down while it is still warm – deep espresso and caramel, like the guidebooks it will grow up to be.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A black-and-white mountain banner stamp reading Lore and Legend for Notch Above Tours.

Dark espresso and caramel leather journals stamped with the Notch Above Tours Lore and Legend design.

And finally, the one we liked the most. A dotted route threads the notch and ends in a burst marked WOW – every itinerary they draw, compressed to a single line. On the golden tan tray it sits by the door, ready for whatever your pockets bring home.

A black-and-white dotted travel route ending at WOW for Notch Above Tours.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Notch Above Tours route-to-WOW design.

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 Notch Above Tours and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.