Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
An August study.
Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement has been at work for more than 130 years, a span that runs from the King's Daughters Settlement on Henry Street to the organization's consolidation at Queensbridge by 1957. Its mission today is to "build and strengthen underserved communities in western Queens and to act as a catalyst for change," and its home page greets visitors with four words we kept returning to as we worked: "A place to grow."
The settlement took its present name in 1901, honoring the reporter whose early flash photography carried tenement conditions into public view. Riis believed in giving people a chance to improve their lives, and the organization that bears his name still frames its work that way, serving youth and families, immigrants and older adults across western Queens. We made this study for Connor and the team at the Astoria Family Enrichment Center.
The mark, as found
The lockup opens with four rounded yellow forms meeting around a narrow blue center, a figure that reads as an open flower, or as neighbors gathered around a shared middle. The word Riis follows in a deep custom blue with both i-dots drawn as full circles, and Settlement sits quietly beneath. In the source file the blue measures #1D3D77 and the yellow #FFCC02.
Pressed
Blueberry and caramel carry the identity's own conversation: blueberry is the closest hide in our line to that deep blue, and caramel translates the yellow into something a hand wants to hold. Yellow is the one color leather refuses to be, so caramel is our honest answer, warmer and quieter than #FFCC02. A third tag in gray sand, the palest neutral we stock, gives the stamp room to speak. All three tags stand upright with the complete lockup pressed blind, tone on tone, and the finished trio was photographed together as one family.
The span
Riis Settlement describes its community engagement work as building bridges among neighbors, and since the 1950s the organization has made its home at Queensbridge, a place with a bridge already in its name. The companion die takes that image at its plainest. A single open arch springs from two grounded banks and meets each one exactly, a whole crossing drawn in one line. We kept the die wordless so it stays sharp at pocket scale, and pressed it blind on a duo of keychain fobs, one blueberry and one caramel.
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 Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.