It makes life much easier if not only you do what you love but also if you go to work to a place custom made to feel like a living place, an extension of your home where you can surround yourself with your preferred personal pieces of furniture, objects, books, etc. On the second floor of Roland Sands Design’s new building in Los Alamitos, CA Roland Sands occupies a vast office space with tall windows overlooking his workshop and where working desk, meeting/lunching/dining table and entertainment/music/video production areas all fit within the same walls. .
Roland was only 5 years old when parents Perry & Nancy Sands founded Performance Machine and introduced him to the world of two wheels. Becoming a professional racer competing during 10 years in the AMA Championship, then getting involved in motorcycle parts design and bike building first for PM, then for his own company RSD, at the age of 38 (in August) Roland has already accumulated tons of motorcycle memories and of course many souvenirs, a selection of them being displayed in his office/living space.
Because design and production of the RSD motorcycle accessory line is at the core of his business, Roland’s big wood and aluminum desk is both his sketch table and digital computer drawing platform. His part, bike and clothing sketches are hung on a wall front of him to see how they endure the test of time.
Roland is among those (not a majority in this business) who understands that a strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies. With the help of Summer Sands Hoover, he spends more time than most in the industry researching, defining, and managing his own RSD brand image. So, it was no surprise for me (Adman in another life) to notice that on a wood shelf behind him, most of his inspirational books are related to art and to successful communication, about artists like James Rosenquist or dedicated to the celebration of The Best Of American Advertising.
Roland loves to show his work in Short Films and I agree with him that they are a great and quick platform to broadcast on social medias a new idea, product or bike to the world. As he states “Our unique perspective starts with a wrench and a camera and ends behind a pair of handlebars.” Logically in a corner of his office there is some digital equipment, a turntable and DJ Mixer, both for his own pleasure and research of special musical effects to illustrate his Shorts. Roland a master of cross-fading? From this location, at any time he can overlook his bikes in progress, making sure they are as aggressive and pretty seen from the top that they are at street level. Roland Sands Design.
I would work in this “office”.
Looks like Roland Sands likes wood.
Very nice place to think and build bikes.
Another amazing and very creative space this week! What a great space to work in!!!
Is that an AJS in the background – jealous already – again…..
Rock on Roland…….great stlyee
It’s a cool place with a good vibe. My wife and I stopped by last July, and checked it out. Friendly staff and interesting stuff on display — like the KRV5!
Jim
Badass that you can DJ for the shop!
Whose living better than Roland
Nice office & workshop, now we need a little insight on Perry Sands & Performance Machine.
Cool ass office but better is the whole RSD team!
I ♥ RSD and the whole crew and Roland thank you for your ongoing designs of cool that keep my “moto lust cravings” rollin…
Good series Cyril – interesting and insightful
I recently have a friend of 23 years fly in from St Louis. She’s an avid follower of Roland Sands.
For her vacation , she wanted to see his shop along with many other Motorcycle shops. Roland came down and met her and took time out to speak about motorcycles and accessories with her. She was so stoked witht the pictures of the two of them and an autographed t-shirt. She told me that meeting Roland was one of the best days of her life as she has been following his life since he was 12 years old. If only he knew who she was. She’s my hero and he hers .What a great day we had at the shop in Los Alomitos. His staff rocks really rocks.
here are some other offices we’d like to see…
– Todd Silicato (Todd’s Cycle)
– Russel Mitchell (Exile)
– Matt Hotch (Matt Hotch Designs)
– Matt Adams (Redsoul)
– Chica (duh!)
– Pete Finlan (Hot Dog)
– Dirk Behlau (Pixeleye)
– Eric Bennett (Bennett’s Performance)
– Nick Sinclair (Sinclair Lowbrow Art)
Most of these guys probalby don’t have fancy offices, but the shop is their office…. and that would be just as, if not even more, interesting to see.
Bike builder offices rock, but their bikes rock harder. Show me your… Bikes!
Those biker build-off shows earlier last decade on Discovery were awesome. But I don’t think I can say anyone ever really “lost,” even tho someone always “won.” Was just a lot of fun to watch no matter the outcome and seemed to be enjoyed by the builders as well.
Love that stuff!
I wanna see Boss Hawg’s office
What about Trevelen’s office? Cool dude and cool shop.