Thoughtworks × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
An August study.
Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy with an unusual habit of candor. Its promise reads “creating extraordinary impact together,” and the diagonal before its name has a name of its own – the Oblique, which the company calls a reference to “our constant pursuit of technological excellence.” What won us over sits lower on the page. Their accessibility statement admits the work is partial and continuing, and Accessibility Talks, a series of short employee stories begun inside the company in 2021, now greets new joiners during onboarding in some countries. The identity was shaped by a thirty-person group of employees drawn from across functions and regions, which may explain why it feels like a place before it feels like a logo.
The mark, as found
Lowercase custom letters, with the same forward angle hiding inside them that the Oblique announces out front. The mark runs long and low, which settled the orientation question before we could ask it.
Pressed
The faithful mark travels the length of three luggage tags, pressed blind so the relief works in shadow alone. Color moves into the leather instead. The wordmark’s deep marine blue becomes a navy tag and the Oblique’s pink a dusty rose one; a third tag in pale warm greige stands for the mist the brand likes to set its logo on. Consultants live in departure lounges more than most, so this felt like the right place to begin.
The ramp
Thoughtworks holds its contradictions in the open, “radical/rational, serious/fun,” and writes them with the same forward slash it leans against its name. Our companion mark takes that slash at its word. Four steps climb in a thin ruled line; one solid oblique beam lies across their noses, and the stair becomes a ramp. Read quickly, it is the Oblique at work; a second look finds the plainest gesture in accessibility, a barrier made passable. We drew the steps rationally and let the single radical stroke do the rest.
The ramp travels across the desk and travel half of the study. On a pair of toiletry bags it sits small in the lower corner of each front, a maker’s press in navy over deep brown.
The key fobs carry it below the rivet, one in deep wine and one in pale warm greige, colors borrowed from the darker chrome of their site and the light ground behind their logo.
A golden tan valet tray takes it at generous size and waits where keys and badges land at the end of the day.
Read by touch
The journal design began with a fact about the medium. A blind deboss is relief; a fingertip can read it in the dark. That seemed like the right property to hand a company whose disability inclusion community teaches colleagues how technology can reach more senses than one. So the die sets a short line of Obliques like type, and a hand reads it. We considered braille and stepped back – borrowing a working script as decoration felt wrong – and kept the idea at the level of plain touch. The result is quieter and, we think, truer.
It presses generously into the lower corner of two wrap journals, a navy book beside a dusty rose one, the two colors of the Thoughtworks mark bound side by side. Notebooks for the workshop table, and for the talk someone is about to give.
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 Thoughtworks and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.