OutsidePR × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A August study.
OutsidePR has worked from Sausalito, California since 1995, when Gordon Wright opened the shop. It calls itself a boutique public relations agency for active lifestyle and outdoor brands, and its casework runs from earned media for names like Pearl Izumi and Strava to overnight media trips and pop-up showrooms, with operations spanning North America and Australia–New Zealand.
Two of their sentences did the design work for us. The agency writes "We practice public relations as a connection," and signs off with "We Live. Outside." Vice President Deena Gregory, who leads their integrated earned-media strategy, has by the agency's own telling stood on Kilimanjaro and crossed fifty-plus countries. We think a mark for this house should move the way she does – out the door and uphill.
Pressed – the OPR wordmark
The official wordmark is a wide teal OPR, a nearly circular O ahead of two sharply leaning stems, and at roughly 2.9:1 it asks for a lengthwise tag with the strap to the left. We sampled the teal at #1E807D straight from the logo file and proofed the mark against a near-black field before pressing anything.
The trio opens with turquoise, the closest leather to that sampled teal; it photographs as pale sea-blue, softer than the screen color, and we like the wordmark better for it. A black tag carries the only gold in the study, the OPR foiled against the same dark field that proved the logo letter-perfect. Arizona closes the family, a golden tan standing in for dirt and daylight. Each single passed on its own before the three sat together for one photograph.
Threshold Trail – the companion mark
Their word "connection" wanted to become one piece of geometry. Threshold Trail is a single unbroken line that runs level inside a plainly drawn doorway. Past the open side it climbs away in one switchback and ends in a small trailhead ring. The doorway stays open on the right because the sentence it draws is "We Live. Outside." Our first sketches leaned on a mountain silhouette; every outdoor brand already owns one, so the mountain went and the door stayed.
The die plate keeps brass-friendly weights throughout, and the whole mark still reads at fifteen millimetres wide, which matters further down this page.
For the keychain duo we paired black with pale sea-blue turquoise, the two poles of their palette. The mark sits centered on each fob below the rivet, blind debossed; on the black fob we held back the gold, since a companion should whisper where the wordmark is allowed to shine.
On the dopp kits the design shrinks to a maker's mark in the lower right corner of each front face, blind debossed at a scale meant to be found second, after the leather. The stack runs country gray over dark espresso, stone over soil.
Arizona carries the catchall tray, the golden tan again, and here the design takes its full generous size, centered on the base inside the stitched border. Empty a jacket pocket into it after a trip and the open door is the first thing under the keys.
Forest green and pale sea-blue make the journal duo, pine beside water. Both carry the compact lower-right mark, and we will admit the hairpin nearly closed at that scale; the trailhead ring is cut a touch heavier there so the turn still reads. These are notebooks for people who write outside.
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 OutsidePR and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.