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No Chair Throwing. No Bloated Overhead. Just Revery.
How Davis Priestley built a Portland studio-agency hybrid on earnestness, integrity and a Gus Van Sant film
Davis Priestley is founder and president of Revery, a Portland-based studio-agency hybrid founded around 2012–2013 by a career freelancer who rejected Hollywood’s gravity to build something stranger and more honest. Davis spent years as a PA in Los Angeles before walking away from a producer credit on Wife Swap, moved to Portland to collaborate with Gus Van Sant on Paranoid Park and worked at Instrument long enough to understand how agencies actually function. Revery’s work with Coach—reviving a legacy account inherited from Adidas—and the WNBA All Star Weekend demonstrated what happens when a brand actually shows up: athletes noticed. His philosophy is deceptively simple: “Dreaming and making should be connected at the same table.” It’s indie thinking applied to everything—flexible, human-scaled, unafraid of earnestness.
The Detour That Built the Agency
Davis arrived in Portland as a freelancer escaping LA’s machinery. He turned down the Wife Swap producer credit—a decision that still feels radical—and found himself working on Gus Van Sant projects while the city’s energy felt right. His one W-2 job at Instrument wasn’t a career move. It was a masterclass. “I was there to understand the business side, to see how agencies actually work.” Within a couple years he left to start Revery. Portland’s indie ecosystem gave him permission to build something that didn’t fit the mold.
What Happens When Their Work Enters a Room
Revery trades in the overlap where studio craftsmanship meets agency strategy. Their work with Coach and the WNBA All Star Weekend in Indianapolis showed what happens when a brand commits to storytelling instead of logos. Eight days out, editing large structures, and athletes were saying things brands never heard before: “You showed up for us differently.” Brittney Griner’s story became the story. Coach didn’t just slap a logo on women’s basketball—they championed the athletes. That’s the work that travels.
Three Strengths That Actually Matter
First: a studio-agency hybrid where dreaming and making happen at the same table, no false separation between strategy and craft. Second: a right-sized, flexible approach with no outsized overhead—they scale to fit the client, not the other way around. Third: and this matters more than most agencies admit—heart and integrity woven into how they work. They create narratives where people see themselves reflected. That’s harder than it sounds.
Why Independence Isn’t Just a Buzzword for Them
Holding company overhead kills the stuff that makes indie agencies worth hiring. At Revery, independence means freedom to challenge systems, to say no to the stupid brief, to structure work sustainably without bloat. It means flexibility—the ability to right-size the approach for each client instead of forcing them into house models. No chair throwing. A safe creative space where people actually think.
Why Brands Wake Up and Call Revery
They show up with a philosophy instead of a playbook. Revery harmonizes their approach to what’s actually needed—sometimes that’s studio work, sometimes it’s strategy, sometimes it’s both in conversation. The studio model means making happens alongside thinking. Clients aren’t handed a spec. They’re in a room where ideas get tested and refined before they go out into the world. That commitment to the work itself—not the billing model—is what brands feel.
Why Talented People Choose to Work There
Davis says thank you first. The culture starts with wanting whole people—recognizing that humans are multifaceted, with lives outside work, with ideas that might surprise you. If you have a concept, it lands somewhere that listens. They’re building service models around AI while refusing to abandon the human values that made the work matter in the first place. Entrepreneurial thinking is invited. The door isn’t a revolving one.
The Weirdos and the Earnestness Problem
Revery claims the weirdo camp without irony. “We are putting the word love into a lot of communication,” Davis says. “I think that’s kind of weird to be earnest these days, and I’m not afraid of it.” In an industry trained to perform cynicism, earnestness reads as radical. They’re not trend-chasing. They’re building culture from a different set of values—one where vulnerability isn’t a liability, where saying you care about the work is normal, not naive.
Dear Rivian: The Future Is Earnest
A hello to Jennifer Prenner, who brought Amazon and Meta’s thinking to Rivian’s mission. Davis is watching what brands like Rivian and Lucid are building in the EV space—the future of adventure, luxury and what happens when electric isn’t just powertrain, it’s a philosophy. That’s the kind of brand thinking that keeps creative people awake. The conversation Davis wants to have is with the CMOs building culture, not just campaigns.
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