The long and slithering roads of rural Delaware practically beg for cars to break down along their shoulders. Besides the spotty and strewn factories or a DuPont office complex, you can’t help but think a roaming band of serial killers (not just one) lurks just out of sight in the tall grass, salivating at the thought of the tender meat dangling from the bones of out-of-staters. Along that same stretch of roadway, just next to the eerie small-town post office, one house that seems like it belongs to a harmless older couple sitting on an empty nest equally gives out the you’re-going-to-be-murdered here vibe.
Should you take the chance and venture inside? What’s the worst that could happen? Stay on your toes, and enter only if you want to get sliced by the fonts of House Industries, the Frankenstein type foundry put together by operator Rich Roat and art director Andy Cruz that collects heavy inspiration from pop culture and Americana. Instead of weird surgeries, old body parts, and an assistant named Fritz, the two owners call on a small, tight-knit staff and a few Macs to make this operation come alive out of a living room, literally.
You may think this plays heavy on metaphor or pun, but House Industries really is run out of a house on a winding back road right next to the Yorklyn, Delaware post office. We really did feel as if something, like a sickle or a Coop font, might have chopped our heads off.
However, inside the three-story dwelling, the team meticulously writes their ABC’s over and over and over, helping to make typography great, fun, easier to work with, and slightly more intuitive. Near the “kitchen,” their attention-grabbing marketing gimmicks litter a long shelf while the beginnings of their latest initiative lays in pieces on the table like a dinner waiting to be eaten.
They’re kind of like a big happy family too, except one illustrator/artist seemingly shunned to the top floor for reasons unknown. Luckily, our tour of the House, led by Andy Cruz, ended on the squeaky planks of that attic-like studio where he kindly answered all our questions about various things like the importance of good typography, spending countless hours on a collection, or fucking around and playing pranks that really do fool people.
