The Splendid Traveler × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
The Splendid Traveler is Alicia Saba's advisory, planning “personalized luxury travel experiences worldwide” with itineraries she designs herself. What won us over was her patient case for the trade. “The Internet makes it easier to research and book your own travel – so why would you work with a travel advisor?” she asks, and then answers in a voice we trust: “Travel advisors offer insider knowledge and expert advice and create possibilities most people never dream of.” The pledge that follows is one every bench craftsman recognizes, that “your trips will be tailored to your needs, interests, and budget.” Our own records place the desk in Georgetown, Texas, though the live pages keep their geography to themselves, so file that under our notes. A woman who sells splendor by name and tailoring by method had already written our brief for us.
On the site the name arrives as pure typography, white serif capitals over a deep teal ground, THE SPLENDID carrying the width and TRAVELER tucked beneath. Handsome, and easy to press exactly as found. Still, a practice built on tailoring seemed to deserve a fitted mark of its own, so this study proposes one. What follows is our proposal, made for the pleasure of it; the company's own treatment remains the plain type above.
As found
The mark this study proposes
We call it THE TAILORED ROUTE. The stacked name holds the lower ground, THE SPLENDID in bold serif capitals and TRAVELER letterspaced beneath until both lines share the same edges, while over them rises one shallow arc drawn as a tailor's running stitch, a file of angled dashes leaving a small solid knot at the left and landing on a four-pointed compass star at the right. The departure and the splendid destination, joined by a single seam. We drew the arc flatter at first and it read as an error; the rise is what makes it a route.
Pressed
Both the as-found type and the stitched route were pressed lengthwise into two leathers the site itself suggested, a deep forest green after its green identity and a pale gray-sand after its quiet editorial ground. Black is the automatic third, and it carries the gold foil.
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 The Splendid Traveler and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.