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.
Glasgow-native Thomas ‘Tam’ Lilley of the roadlining company Markon agreed to be our subject. He’s a star.
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).
It’s not just a job—it’s a dance.
We worked with filmmaking upstart Pretend Lovers, who were on-site with the O Street team to capture Tam’s story.
If you’re interested in screening or reviewing the film please drop us a line.