Pack Happy Travel × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Pack Happy Travel plans getaways out of North Kansas City for clients nationwide, everything from theme-park weeks to journeys abroad. The homepage states its aim in capitals, “OUR ULTIMATE GOAL IS THAT YOU PACK HAPPY”, and founder Marti Blaine came by that goal honestly. She traveled with her family as a child; the newlywed years meant seeing the United States on a budget. Later the whole family went worldwide. Her promise now is to fit each trip to a client's budget and appetite for adventure, so they can “Pack Happy and travel carefree.”
A travel agency whose mark is already a rolling suitcase makes an easy case for a luggage-tag study; we hardly had to argue ourselves into it. The little case leans right on its wheels, turquoise-bodied with an orange-red side panel. A short black handle-stroke rises off the top as if caught mid-tug. Beside it the name runs in a loose handwritten script, capitals looping tall and the baseline wandering the way a real signature wanders. One person's hand, which suits a one-founder shop.
The mark, as found
Pressed lengthwise
Two leathers came straight from the mark, a pale sea-blue turquoise for the suitcase body and a honeyed indian-summer for its warm side panel. Black carries the gold foil, as black does. The handwritten script asked for room; debossed loops close up when they run small, so the lengthwise pressing lets the letters keep their air.
The smilecase
Stand the suitcase upright and the zipper becomes a mouth. Our companion design curves the zipper track into a grin above the words PACK HAPPY, so the case beams at whoever picks up the bag. We drew it in portrait to give the smile a face-shaped frame. Whether a zipper could look genuinely cheerful was an open question until the first render came back; it can.
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 Pack Happy Travel and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.