Warwick Travel Service × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
A July study.
Warwick Travel Service has been sending Newport News, Virginia out into the world since 1975, when Paul and Mary Ward opened Ward’s Travel on Warwick Boulevard. The shop later took the boulevard’s name and kept its manners. Local investors bought it from the Wards in 1989, and in 2006 Nancy Alligood and Gerry Siekirski became co-owners; both had been in travel since 1981, and between them and their advisors the team now counts more than 300 combined years in the trade. Their promise runs six words: “Just pack. We’ll do the rest.”
What asked for the pressing is the mark. Green serif capitals spell WARWICK, with TRAVEL set smaller beneath and to the right. Above the I and the C a small gold sun rises, rays fanned across its arc. An agency past its fiftieth year that still puts a drawn sunrise over its own name understands something about mornings and departures. We wanted to see how that sun behaved in leather.
The mark, as found
Pressed lengthwise
Their site serves the mark at 150 pixels across, far too small to cut from, so we redrew it faithfully by hand and stamped from the redraw. Deep forest green follows the serif wordmark, and honeyed russet answers the gold of the rising sun. Black with gold foil completes the set.
Suitcase Sunrise
One vintage hard-sided case, heavy outline and rounded corners, with their sun climbing from behind the lid exactly where it perches in the wordmark, off-center and clear of the handle. The lid’s edge cuts the half-disc the way a horizon cuts a sunrise. Below, two lines in plain capitals: JUST PACK, then WE’LL DO THE REST. We dropped the tagline’s periods for die legibility and left the tiny SERVICE INC. line off entirely; at stamp scale it would close up into a smudge.
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 Warwick Travel Service and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.