Untethered Travel Co. × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Untethered Travel Co. is Janalee's travel planning company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her site frames travel as a way of creating space and broadening horizons, and her phrase for the whole outlook is “be the captain of your own ship.” Behind the name sits a family story of becoming untethered. The daily practice is plainer: trips planned end to end, from family vacations to travel coaching, so the client's whole remaining job is to enjoy the thing.
The mark is what pulled us in. A company named for coming loose keeps its bird inside a drawn square, and the drawing sends the bird forward anyway, breaking toward the open side of the frame. We argued a little over whether that tension was designed or lucky. Either way it holds the whole story in one glyph, and a glyph like that asks to be pressed into something that travels.
The mark, as found
Pressed lengthwise
Blueberry meets the lockup's navy nearly tone for tone, and turquoise gives the same bird lighter water to cross. Black carries the stamp in gold. Our one worry was the fine square, which can blur when the hide swells back after the press; it held, though the corners return a touch softer than the artwork draws them.
The snapped line
For the companion we drew the moment the name describes. A mooring line parts between its post and a rising bird, and UNTETHERED runs beneath in the same wide capitals. We left the frayed end mid-air, so the snap is still happening when you look at it.
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 Untethered Travel Co. and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.