House Industries is a

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and M ...

and

design studio A design studio or drawing office is a workplace for designers and artisans engaged in conceiving, designing and developing new products or objects. Facilities in a design studio include clothes, furniture art equipment best suited for design work ...

based in

Yorklyn, Delaware Yorklyn is an unincorporated community in northern New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It lies along Delaware Route 82 northwest of the city of Wilmington, the county seat of New Castle County. Its elevation is 174 feet (53 m). I ...

. The company was created in the 1990s in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

by co-founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat. The company is best known for its typeface creations, which have appeared on television (e.g.

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...

, VH1's ''

Best Week Ever ''Best Week Ever'' is an American comedy series created and executive produced by Fred Graver. The series originally aired from January 23, 2004, to June 12, 2009, on VH1.Harris, Scott"VH1 Cancels 'Best Week Ever'". ''Inside TV''. January 13, 2 ...

''), in film (e.g. '' Mission: Impossible III'') and on commercial products (e.g.

Ann Taylor Ann or Anne Taylor may refer to: *Ann Taylor (writer, born 1757) (1757–1830), English writer *Ann Taylor (poet) (1782–1866), English poet and children's writer, daughter of the above *Ann Taylor (actress) (born 1936), British actress, hostess a ...

garment tag,

Lucky Charms Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills since 1964. The cereal consists of multi-colored marshmallows and pieces of shaped pulverized oat, each resembling one of several objects or symbols associated with good lu ...

logo and Green Day's ''

Dookie ''Dookie'' is the third studio album and the major label debut by American rock band Green Day, released on February 1, 1994, by Reprise Records. The band's first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo, it was recorded in late 1993 at Fantas ...

'' album).

History

Founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat met at Miller Mauro Group, Inc., a Wilmington, Del. marketing communications agency. They briefly worked for Swfte International, a Miller Mauro Group client, before leaving to form Brand Design Co., Inc in 1993. Cruz and Roat formed House Industries in late 1993. Popular typefaces sold by House Industries include

Neutraface Neutraface is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Christian Schwartz for House Industries, an American digital type foundry. It was influenced by the work of architect Richard Neutra and was developed with the assistance of Neutra's so ...

, a geometric sans-serif, Eames Century Modern, inspired by the design work of Ray and Charles Eames, and Chalet, a set of designs inspired by common sans-serifs such as Avant Garde Grotesque,

Helvetica Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...

and its adaptations from the 1960s to the 1990s, and a collection of revivals of the lettering of

Ed Benguiat Ephram Edward Benguiat (; October 27, 1927October 15, 2020) was an American type designer and lettering artist. He designed over 600 typefaces, including Tiffany, Bookman, Panache, Souvenir, Edwardian Script, and the eponymous Benguiat and Bengu ...

. Its SignPainter

script font Script typefaces are based upon the varied and often fluid stroke created by handwriting. They are generally used for display or trade printing, rather than for extended body text in the Latin alphabet. Some Greek alphabet typefaces, especially ...

is bundled with

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. The company goes to elaborate lengths to promote its typefaces, including creating chairs, pillows and various other items inspired by the typefaces they sell. In one promotion they created the fictional character René Albert Chalet and promoted him as the creator of a new typeface ''Chalet''. In February 2010 ''

LAS Magazine ''LAS Magazine'', also known as ''Lost At Sea'' or ''LostAtSea.net'', is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a descr ...

'' wrote about the company's Eames Century Modern Collection, a project done in collaboration with the estate of architects

Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

. Its first ever West Coast exhibition showcasing its history is running at Chapman University's Guggenheim Gallery from February 6 to March 9, 2012. It published a book, ''House Industries: The Process Is the Inspiration'' with foreword by

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

, a fan of the company's work, in 2017. Founder Rich Roat died suddenly on 29 November 2017 aged 52. They have also published ''Lettering Manual: House'' by Ken Barber, with a foreword by

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...

References

External links

House Industries — Official Site
*

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

Interview with CreativeXpert regarding "

fonts In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

& illustration"
MP3 Link
Type foundries 1990s establishments in Delaware Companies based in New Castle County, Delaware {{US-company-stub