Please Touch – a leather collection about handling what you keep

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world logos.

A September study.

Waterfall Volume II. Every museum hangs the same small sign, case after case: PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH. Please Touch is a leather collection for the one room where the rule runs the other way – five stamps about handling, pressed into objects that improve in the hand.

First, we retired the white gloves. A single curator's glove lies flat beside the words NO GLOVES REQUIRED – leather is the rare artifact that asks for bare hands, and a luggage tag meets them at every counter it crosses. The design runs lengthwise along the tag.

NO GLOVES REQUIRED black-and-white leather stamping die

The black tag carries the design in gold.

NO GLOVES REQUIRED gold stamped on a black leather luggage tag

On chestnut with visible character and on pale sea-blue, a blind press. It looks genuinely beautiful.

NO GLOVES REQUIRED blind stamped on a Sicilian brown leather luggage tag

NO GLOVES REQUIRED blind stamped on a pale turquoise leather luggage tag

Next, the thumbprint. Nine open ridge lines above the words HANDLED DAILY – the mark a hand leaves on the one artifact that never gets a day off. Keys ride in a pocket for years; the fob finally gets the credit.

HANDLED DAILY thumbprint black-and-white leather stamping die

Looks great when stamped onto the leather – once on warm tan, once on deep green, the color of a signal lens set to go.

HANDLED DAILY blind stamped on a caramel leather keychain

HANDLED DAILY blind stamped on a forest green leather keychain

Then the sign itself, turned around. We set PLEASE TOUCH in a small wall-label frame and pressed it low in the corner of the toiletry bag, warm tan over chestnut – right where a thumb lands each time the bag is lifted.

PLEASE TOUCH black-and-white leather stamping die

PLEASE TOUCH blind stamped on caramel and Sicilian brown leather toiletry bags

Then the catchall tray – a display case with the glass left off. TOUCH THE EXHIBITS circles the base with a small open hand at the bottom of the ring, and the middle stays empty on purpose: the exhibits arrive every evening out of your own pocket. On golden tan, it looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

TOUCH THE EXHIBITS black-and-white leather stamping die

TOUCH THE EXHIBITS blind stamped on an Arizona tan leather catchall tray

And finally, the journals. Libraries spent a century stamping the opposite instruction into their books, so we set a sharpened pencil above the words PLEASE WRITE IN THIS BOOK and pressed it into the corner – one journal in deep wine, one in navy. Whatever fills the pages becomes the document some future keeper will be glad survived.

PLEASE WRITE IN THIS BOOK black-and-white leather stamping die

PLEASE WRITE IN THIS BOOK blind stamped on a Sangria leather journal

PLEASE WRITE IN THIS BOOK blind stamped on a Blueberry leather journal

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'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.