The Writing City – a leather collection for the literary life of Iowa City, Iowa

The Writing City – Volume I-A. A September study.

A small collection for the literary life of Iowa City, Iowa – a town where writers' words are set into the downtown sidewalks in bronze, and where an ordinary weeknight usually has a reading on it somewhere.

First, we drew Iowa City the way a reader remembers it – a downtown block built out of book spines, with the dome of the Old Capitol rising over the shelf.

Black-and-white die artwork of an Iowa City skyline built from book spines, with the Old Capitol cupola and IOWA CITY, for The Writing City leather collection.

The black tag carries the skyline in gold. The pale sea-blue and caramel tags take it as a deep blind press. Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

A black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

A pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

A caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

The same shelf runs across the base of the catchall tray, where keys and pens land at the end of the day.

An arizona tan leather catchall tray blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

Next, the journals. In this town every notebook is somebody's next draft, so the cover admits it – FIRST struck through, with a proofreader's caret slipping SECOND into its place.

Black-and-white die artwork reading SECOND above a struck-through FIRST DRAFT with a proofreader caret, for The Writing City leather collection.

It looks genuinely beautiful – pressed into the corner of a deep wine journal and a pale gray sand one.

A sangria leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the SECOND DRAFT editing design from The Writing City collection.

A pale gray-sand leather wrap journal blind-debossed with the SECOND DRAFT editing design from The Writing City collection.

Then the keychains, for the half of the writing life that happens out loud. A single microphone stands over READ IT ALOUD, and its cable trails off into a handwritten line.

Black-and-white die artwork of a reading microphone, looping cable and READ IT ALOUD for The Writing City leather collection.

The black fob takes the design in gold, like one lit page in a dark room. The forest green fob takes the plain press.

A black leather keychain gold-stamped with a reading microphone and READ IT ALOUD from The Writing City collection.

A forest-green leather keychain blind-debossed with a reading microphone and READ IT ALOUD from The Writing City collection.

And finally, the toiletry bags, for everyone who arrives in town with a manuscript in the luggage. The corner stamp is a suitcase that is secretly a closed book, VISITING WRITER above it, pressed into the blueberry and dark espresso stack.

Black-and-white die artwork reading VISITING WRITER above a suitcase shaped like a closed book, for The Writing City leather collection.

Blueberry and dark-espresso leather toiletry bags blind-debossed with VISITING WRITER and a book-suitcase from The Writing City collection.

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.

P.S.

An alternate black leather luggage tag gold-stamped with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

An alternate pale sea-blue leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

A curator-review alternate caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

A second curator-review alternate caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.

An alternate corrected-reference caramel leather luggage tag blind-debossed with the Iowa City book-spine skyline from The Writing City collection.