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an empty house

rich roat 1965-2017

in my latter years at secondary school, i joined the drama society, not because i harboured any thespian aspirations, but to keep out of the public gaze, backstage. employment in this area began with designing and subsequently painting the scenery flats, a time-consuming task due to there often being more than a single stage setting for each play. that work completed, it was a case of knuckling down to what i believe was referred to as stage management; ensuring that each actor took the stage just when they ought, cueing any musical accompaniment and making any banging noises that might be featured in the script.

keeping out of the limelight didn't end there, however. there were still posters to be designed and distributed around the school and town, as well as the particularly onerous task of ensuring all names on the programme were spelled correctly. granted, those of us responsible for the smooth running of each drama did not receive the approbation of a hopefully delighted audience, but could rest on the laurels of a job well done. all that, before it was time to dismantle and store the scenery and props for the next production.

on reaching my college years, i became particularly intrigued by the ministrations involved in typesetting, from letterpress to litho, delving ever deeper into the descenders, bowls, kerning and leading of a variety of typefaces. careful consideration of all the above factors hopefully led to legible and readable text without the reader ever becoming aware of the stage management that brought it to their inattention in the first place.

though computers were conspicuous by their absence in the graphics department of the day, subsequent acquaintance with electronica and dependent software allowed rudimentary attempts at font design. unfortunately and much to my embarrassment, much of this so-called research and development took place in the heyday of david carson's raygun magazine, when typefaces were not only very much in-your-face, but carried more than a soupcon of illegibility within their postscript outlines.

blame david carson.

it cannot be an easy or lucrative life as a type designer. despite the existence of software to take care of the more arcane aspects of digital creation, professional typefaces rarely arise overnight. ever since the advent of the apple mac classic and the subsequent creation of desktop publishing, the number of fonts available to the average typesetter or graphic designer has increased exponentially, not always to the benefit of those involved in their use or those reading the results.

however, aside from the traditional typefaces such as times new roman, adobe caslon, baskerville and helvetica, many smaller digital foundries have brought stylish and quirky typefaces that still retain the required legibility, yet augmented with a contemporary flourish. one such foundry is delaware's house industries which, under the creative and tireless vision of rich roat has engendered a level of influence far in excess of its size.

to bring this feature just a bit closer to home, thewashingmachinepost text that appears at the top of your browser has been set in the house industries typeface, velo. in fact, after featuring this typeface on the post a few years ago, rich sent me that very graphic to adorn my black and yellow pixels. sadly, only a few days ago, rich roat suddenly died at the age of 52. i never met the man, though we had corresponded by e-mail on several occasions, having been initially introduced to each other by none other than richard sachs.

having produced steel bicycles painted red and white for many a long year, mr sachs had placed the redesign of his cyclocross bicycles and team kit in the hands of rich roat, attaching no conditions to the task, the superb results of which you will hopefully have already seen. rich roat was one of those larger than life fellows who was as absorbed by the bicycle as any of us and found the time not only to oversee the day to day running of house, but to fight fires, drive the fire engine and respond to more calls than any other as an active member of hockessin fire company, something he'd enthusiastically done for the last sixteen years.

those of you who have enjoyed the trials and tribulations of the richard sachs 'cross team in recent years and who have admired the stylish decor sported on those immaculate steel frames, will probably not have realised the debt owed to mr roat; precisely the way he'd have liked it. when i recently asked him why a type foundry was involved in sponsoring an east-american cyclocross team in the first place, he said,

"Our relationship with Richard Sachs and the team goes much deeper than a logo on a top tube, cyclocross, or bikes in general. It is a relationship fueled by trust and mutual respect, two things that are very hard to quantify in terms of money or return on investment. We take a back seat to the core supporters whose logos are on the front of the top tube - quite literally. Our logo goes on the seat tube, as it does on every Richard Sachs bicycle. That's a privilege and placement that we do not take lightly."

rich roat, it was a great pleasure to have known you, even if only from across the atlantic. rest in peace.

house industries

rich roat 1965-2017

friday 8 december 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................