Can a Creative Agency Reshape Portland?

Like any other city, Portland, Oregon exists beyond its borders as the image others project from it.

If that tableau features alabaster creatives in thrift-store ensembles pedaling tall bikes from their afternoon coffee shop to their evening’s craft brewery, that’s what visiting outsiders will expect. If Portland’s name is tied to a stream of images of tear-gassed protesters, boarded windows, homeless encampments and epidemic fentanyl use, that, too, will be the city’s brand in certain corners of the country.

The view from Oved Valadez’s Industry agency on 10th Ave. on the West End of Downtown Portland tells a different story. During the pandemic, office vacancies downtown increased from 12.4% at the end of 2019 to 21.2% in the first quarter of this year, according to real estate firm Kidder Matthews. Portland tourism spending that peaked at $5.9 billion in 2019 cratered to $2.8 billion in 2020 and only inched up to $5.2 billion last year.

But amid all of this, a Ritz-Carlton hotel and residences rose across the street from Industry’s headquarters, condos sprang up around the corner with views of the Willamette River and the nearby Park Blocks. Businesses like Bertony Faustin’s Abbey Creek Vineyard and Angel Medina and team’s Republica—and its burgeoning restaurant empire—moved in as neighbors.

Industry had long used its powers to tell the story of brands including Nike, Tidal, Timberland and Jordan Brand. In 2021, Valadez’s agency teamed up with tourism agency Travel Portland on a campaign of “This is Portland” digital spots aimed at bringing travelers back to the city. Last year, Industry worked with influencer Matty Matheson for his own field trip around the town.

This year, however, Industry made the investment in its neighborhood’s future personal by opening the IndustryOne gallery and exhibition space on the ground floor of its building. The agency’s marketing-industry friends, its West End neighbors or even tourists only about a block and a half from their destination at Powell’s Books could pop in to see work by artists tied to the marketing industry. The space’s last show, Sentimientos/Sentiments, was a collaboration between Southern California multimedia artist and graphic designer Madsteez (aka Mark Paul Deren)—who’s done work for Nike, Target and Red Bull, among others—and It’s a Living (aka Mexican artist Ricardo Gonzalez), who’s worked with Bentley, Google and Coca-Cola. 

Through gallery events, gatherings on Industry’s roof deck and West End Wednesdays organized through Industry One and neighboring businesses, Valadez sees a way for his creative agency to influence the world around it without relying on campaigns, spots or releases. Industry wants to prove that an agency can be a vital part of its surrounding community, and opening its doors is just the first step.

“Being a huge advocate of small businesses of Downtown Portland—I was born in Mexico, so I have felt and know the social injustices you can face being an immigrant in this country—I felt those 100 days of protest, those 100 days of chaos in the city,” said Valadez, Industry’s founding partner and executive creative director. “It’s my responsibility to tell the story of Industry and open the doors but, more importantly, [tell the story of] what’s in front of me.”

Work to do

Opened in November 2022, Industry One kicked off with an exhibition by New York-based Black chefs’ collective Ghetto Gastro. Shows by indigenous Mexican artist Josué Rivas and Los Angeles creative studio Object & Animal followed, pulling work from a broad spectrum of sources and bringing life to a corner of downtown darkened by vacancies and construction projects.

“What happens if we create a creative community space, where we inspire the creative class here in Portland with incredible, diverse creators from around the world?” Valadez said. “One thing we realized was that many of these artists work with brands, but are not really fully expressing themselves.”

Valadez and his agency planned to allow marketing-tied artists to work beyond campaigns, display their work in Industry One and sell their pieces without Industry taking a commission. Instead of doing a portrait of Kobe Bryant, Lionel Messi or Diego Maradona for a brand, Madsteez could simply work with BMX bikes, Nintendo consoles and other totems of his youth and coat them in color that evokes the palettes of the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

Industry One has booked out two years’ worth of shows, with its next exhibition going to a photographer from Mexico City whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair. Valadez sees Industry One’s diverse lineup as an extension of the changes he’s seeing in Portland, where the city’s nearly 70% white population makes it one of the most homogenous in the U.S.—but doesn’t speak to the strength or contributions of its other communities. 

“In 2020, Downtown was in ashes—let’s just be honest—and the beauty of it is that out of those ashes, you have individuals that are hungry,” he said, including himself in the mix. “You have individuals like Angel at Republica, Gregory [Gourdet] at Kann, you have [Creative 100 honoree and Claima Stories podcaster] Bimma Williams and out of that energy, we took the mic and said, ‘Now we can shape Portland into this next version of itself.’”

Valadez is in conversations with Medina, Williams and others about how best to use their influence, but one of the answer has shown up in West End Wednesdays posters and QR codes just outside Industry’s door.

Tying it together

Industry One has a brainstorming space for Industry’s creatives just behind the scenes. A floor above—in what was once the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art—there is lobby space, glass conference rooms, cubicles and workspace all surrounded by artwork. Just above that, maker and fabrication spaces and a living room/trophy room of Industry creations for Nike and others flows onto a rooftop patio where it hosts its West End Wednesday events at the end of each month.

Joining 30 other area businesses in inviting in guests for events, Industry keeps Industry One open and brings other businesses, including Portland’s Deadstock Coffee, Matta and Heyday Donuts to the patio for the festivities. Using experience gleaned while running Air Max Day for Nike, Valadez is attempting to connect both small Portland businesses and its larger players including Nike, Adidas, Intel, Instrument, Wieden+Kennedy and convince one of the top U.S. talent exporters to retain its best people.

Having Nike’s Tinker Hatfield and graffiti artist Stash wandering the gallery floor alongside local stars like Stumptown Coffee founder Duane Sorenson at a free event that anyone off the street can just pop into—as they did during the Sentimientos/Sentiments show—is an important step in Valadez’ overall plan.

Where food and music personalities in Portland tended to gravitate toward their own groups, the city’s robust marketing community is similarly insular: Clinging to old rules about not discussing creative work, even once it’s no longer a trade secret and out in the open.

Valadez said he sees Industry’s gallery shows, West End Wednesday events and community networking as a way to not only push the city’s creative community, but to use that wellspring of creativity toward a greater good. 

“It’s to establish Portland as the creative capital of the states,” he said. “That, to me, is the DNA of Portland.”