The Circulating Library – a stamped leather collection for readers who share books

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

A September study – Waterfall Volume II.

The Circulating Library is a small collection about the life a book leads between hands – lent out with a warm word and expected home again. Four designs borrow the library's own grammar and press it into leather.

First, the journals. We drew a bookplate with the name left blank – EX LIBRIS over an empty ruled line – because a journal is the one book in a library its owner writes. The line waits for a hand.

Black-and-white die artwork of an EX LIBRIS bookplate with a blank ownership line for The Circulating Library leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful – pressed into a deep wine journal and a pale warm greige one.

A deep-wine leather journal blind-debossed with the EX LIBRIS bookplate from The Circulating Library.

A pale warm greige leather journal blind-debossed with the EX LIBRIS bookplate from The Circulating Library.

Next, the keychains. Most books travel by word of mouth, so we carved the gesture itself – a hand holding out a book – over the two words that move more books than any review: READ THIS.

Black-and-white die artwork of a hand offering a book above READ THIS for The Circulating Library leather collection.

On the black fob the hand and its book go in gold, like a title on a spine. The navy fob takes the plain press.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with the hand, book and READ THIS design from The Circulating Library.

A navy leather keychain blind-debossed with the hand, book and READ THIS design from The Circulating Library.

Then, the travel pieces. We set a closed book inside a ring of two chasing arrows, IN CIRCULATION beneath – the library's old word for a book that is out in the world and due back. The tags run in deep wine and in warm tan.

Black-and-white die artwork of a book inside two chasing arrows above IN CIRCULATION for The Circulating Library leather collection.

The black tag carries the mark in gold.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the IN CIRCULATION design from The Circulating Library.

A deep-wine leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the IN CIRCULATION design from The Circulating Library.

A warm-tan leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the IN CIRCULATION design from The Circulating Library.

The same mark sits in the corner of the toiletry bags, warm tan stacked on chestnut – the piece that goes out and comes back most often.

Warm-tan and chestnut leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with the IN CIRCULATION design from The Circulating Library.

And finally, the catchall tray. We cut a returns slot into a long counter and left a book mid-drop, RETURNS beneath – the tray is where a day's borrowings come home each night, and there are no fines.

Black-and-white die artwork of a book entering a returns slot above RETURNS for The Circulating Library leather collection.

Looks great when stamped onto the golden tan.

A golden-tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the RETURNS design from The Circulating Library.

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 any of these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.