Home Truths

After a late summer slumber, Home Truths is back with a bang and a few words from Matthew Moss, Head of Accounts at the RoundHouse Agency.

 

What do you do to bring home the bacon?
I am the Head of Accounts for a creative agency based in SE Portland. Basically I oversee all business relationships, strategy and teams and do the fun stuff like keeping clients from jumping off bridges and instead wrapping them in the warm glow of design amazingness. I also oversee the experiential department that turns people’s dreams into reality, sort of like a genie but without the silk pants and questionable mustache. It’s a great job and I work with amazingly talented and funny people. My background has encompassed so many aspects of the brand and agency world over the years that I can now use my experience for good and not evil like my dad suggested.

 

 

You have been involved in events all around the country for various companies. What’s been your favorite?
All around the the World! It’s a close race between a few (can I have a few?). I once sent 2 “Junior Lucky Bastards” to 17 countries around the world in 5 weeks for Diesel Jeans (55DSL), carrying a bag full of camera equipment and asked them to document living at least 55 seconds a day. This pretty much consisted of free travel, booze, hotels, concerts, sharks, sumo wrestlers, cars and much much more craziness. Then there was the time we built a completely seamless mirrored infinity room in San Fransisco for Microsoft and projected LED video animations into the infinite space for people to explore – with some side effects, namely lying face down on the floor babbling uncontrollably. We also created a personalized photo experience for fans and bands at Sasquatch in the Gorge for Red Bull, 3 days of no showers, lots of neon and some of the most questionable imagery I’ve ever had the pleasure of being burned into my eyes. But the top top one has to be when I marched Snoop Dogg, Darth Vader, 30 armed Storm Troopers and a fully functioning R2D2 Unit from Times Square to Soho in the middle of winter for an adidas / Star Wars shoe launch. There’s something mind blowing about being on the phone with Lucasfilms and Darth Vader from the 501 Chapter of New York state while discussing a strategic Galactic Empire deployment in Manhattan. Bizarre.

 

 

You’ve been remodeling your home since you bought it a couple of years ago? What’s given you the most satisfaction?
I think the overhaul of the second floor. When we moved in it was being used as a kids playroom and side office with that awful fake wood sheet panelling you find in the basements of 70’s era remodels. There is a lot of wood throughout the house including knotty pine upstairs so you can imaging what that looked like. Luckily through a city run energy efficiency program we were able to insulate the house and remodel the upstairs at the same time to give us a master bedroom and a bedroom for my son, adding two rooms that are livable. It’s still a work in progress but is a lot more palatable now, sort of like a swedish sauna but with beds.

 

 

What have you bought for your house this year that you wish you had bought sooner?
The Roomba! I bleedin’ love that little guy, I’m the laziest person when it comes to housework so you pop the little fella on and he does his thing while you put your feet up and have a lovely cuppa. Sorted.

What’s your most recent ‘best kept secret’ in Portland?
For a shop it’s Wild Fang – http://www.wildfang.com
Great people and extremely good at what they do, it’s all women’s wear unfortunately but I love their business model and passion.

For a person it’s – http://www.maryannahoggatt.com
Amazingly talented, ultra cool and is going places, keep an eye out for her.

And a plug for the best kidswear company in town – http://www.prefresh.com
My mate owns the company and they do a brilliant job in making/designing cool gear for the kiddies.