Q Cruise + Travel × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Q Cruise + Travel is a boutique team of leisure travel advisors on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, specialists in premium and luxury cruising. The firm sailed for years as Cruise Holidays Chicago on the Magnificent Mile before taking the shorter name, and it keeps the meaning of its Q pleasingly double: quality, or the old quartermaster, the officer charged with a voyage’s logistics. Its advisors have reached all seven continents by ship, the site is illustrated with their own travel photographs, and the header reads “QUALITY CRUISES. TAILORED VACATIONS.” The promise beneath all of it runs from the first phone call until the traveler returns home. That last clause stayed with us.
The mark earned the press on design merit alone. A huge white Q fills a square split down the middle, deep navy against a brighter maritime blue, and the name sits letterspaced small beneath it. Two-tone fields this confident are rare in travel, and this one handed us our leathers before the swatch book was open.
The mark, as found
Pressed
The white Q and its small name went in as one-color art, the leather standing in for the blue field. We pressed blueberry, which sits close to the navy half of their square, and turquoise, which answers the brighter half. Black carries the gold foil, as it does in every study.
The Lifeline Q
Their Q already reads as a ring with a line trailing off it, and every deck at sea carries an object of that shape. So we drew the letter as a ship’s life ring: two concentric circles lashed at the compass points, with a rope leaving the lower right on a diagonal for the tail and closing in a small open loop, its twists ticked in along the way. We tried the rope steeper at first; it read as an anchor line, so it came back to the easy diagonal. Beneath the ring a single line says UNTIL YOU RETURN HOME, their own promise, set in plain capitals where a tag can carry it for the whole trip.
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 Q Cruise + Travel and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.