Roadliners

Typographers of the road

Roadliners is a film about inspiration and craft, and the uncelebrated typographers of the road.

While looking for inspiration for O Street’s new brand we stumbled on typographers whose work was uniquely relevant to our company. After getting to know their craft, we decided to produce a short documentary about these unique   typographers.

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Glasgow-native Thomas ‘Tam’ Lilley of the roadlining company Markon agreed to be our subject. He’s a star.

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Tam wields an ability borne of 18 years of solid work drawing one single typeface freehand with giant fluid strokes over-and-over-and-over-again. Seeing a master roadliner at work brings to mind a Japanese calligrapher or  renaissance painter’s apprentice (although the molten-hot thermoplastic these boys work with burns straight to the bone).

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It’s not just a job—it’s a dance.

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We worked with filmmaking upstart Pretend Lovers, who were on-site with the O Street team to capture Tam’s story.

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If you’re interested in screening or reviewing the film please  drop us a line.

We are an independent design studio, applying craft and hard work to drive your brand in the right direction.

If you’re interested in working with us we’d love to hear your story.