From T-shirts to tech: Rockablock founder talks expansion and return to Indy

Rockland Page is the founder and designer behind the RockaBlock lifestyle brand. In a Q&A with Indianapolis Recorder Editor-in-Chief Camike Jones, Page talks about how he started, expanding beyond designing T-shirts and moving his business from Merrillville back to his hometown of Indianapolis. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What was the inspiration for RockaBlock? Rockland Page: I wanted to do something for myself. I’d spent, at the time, the last 15 or so years of my career working for other companies. I started out my career working for Johnson Publishing, which published Ebony and Jet magazines, as a graphic designer and art director. Then I moved on to the Chicago Tribune, and I was there for about seven years as the art director. And finally, I went to an engineering firm working in the Creative Services Department. Around seven years ago, I started toying around with the idea of starting a clothing line and just began making T-shirts out of my basement. I bought some heat transfer equipment, the heat press and started the designing. I made my website, rockablock.com, and made the announcement in November of 2017. This is just really a creative outlet for...