To Wander and Rōam: From Perth to Palm Springs
By Deborah Thomas
Block’s Mark Braddock and Rōam’s Romina Gil De Matos reflect on the longevity of their collaborative friendship spanning more than 15 years.
The concept of longevity in holistic wellbeing is not just about living longer, but living better, embracing the passing of time with more considered approaches to choices affecting lifestyle, mindset and vitality, with benefits enhanced and improved with the help of science and technology. Can the concept of ‘longevity’ be applied to the creative industry, in particular, to long-lasting collaborative friendships and creative pursuits?
MARK BRADDOCK FIRST met Romina Gil De Matos in 2003. Mark was in his early thirties and Romina was only 23. Their first creative collaboration was to deliver an exciting brand identity for a conceptual retail store that Romina was opening with her partner at the time selling designer homewares. The tiny store with a glass shopfront and concave ceiling was ironically named Test Tube and was positioned off a side street in the Perth suburb of Mount Lawley. Although no longer in existence, Test Tube was considered a pioneer retail store in Perth showcasing an innovative selection of internationally-sourced design objects previously unseen in Australia at the time.
Test Tube was soon followed by Zekka, another challenger concept store focusing on cutting-edge international menswear. A seasoned traveller, Romina’s main motivation for both stores was to create an elevated retail space that could belong anywhere in the world. This was 2006, a time before online shopping, when tastemakers had to physically travel overseas to Europe, Japan or America to be able to own a lacquered-steel Moon Dish by Munich designer Matthias Demacker, or to drape themselves head-to-toe in the rough-hewn jersey of Rick Owens. Although both businesses were successful at the time, life, as it often does, took some turns. Test Tube was sold, Zekka expanded into womenswear, Romina and her partner parted ways, and by 2011, both Test Tube and Zekka were permanently closed. During this time, Mark’s wife and Block’s CEO Tanya Sim was also diagnosed and undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
Romina freelanced at Block for a short while before moving to New York in 2014. There were several unrealised projects they worked on together: a café on Mount Street, a hair elixir oil, but these were nothing more than ideas, perhaps a way of remaining creatively connected, a way of keeping in touch. Whilst Mark stayed put in Perth, Romina moved again, this time heading West, to California, where she settled down and fully embraced the sun-washed desert lifestyle of Palm Springs, selling mid-century homes for a living before becoming a mother. They sent the odd text every once in a while, enquiring how each other was, questions about work, lockdowns, health and family life.
ABOVE: Romina’s portfolio designed by Romina and Mark
in preparation for her move to NYC in 2014.
By the early 2020s, missing creativity, connection and community, Romina was ready to embark on a new business venture, another boutique retail experience that she would call Rōam. “Rōam was percolating in my head for years,” Romina says. “I am inspired by slow design, craftsmanship, globally designed pieces that felt good for the soul as opposed to the bright orange, plastic fantastic, pseudo mid-century vibes that run rampant in Palm Springs.”
In August 2023, Romina reached out to Mark, sending him a DM on Instagram to gauge his interest. She typed out a lengthy message, beginning with “I’m terrified to tell you this …”
Romina describes reconnecting with Mark for Rōam as, “natural, yet awkward, if that makes sense.” She admits that she was nervous presenting her idea to him because she had been removed from retail for so long and imposter syndrome had come into full effect. Mark isn’t only her creative collaborator, but also her friend. His supportive presence in her past meant that he was not only witness to her achievements, but also her disappointments. And when it came to returning to retail, Romina naturally questioned herself: “Did I even know what would resonate any more?”
Putting those doubts aside, it is apparent that Mark represents a safe place for her, one that has been built on respect, trust and care. Over the years, the two of them had slowly nurtured this idea that there is no such thing as a bad idea. To trust the process. To feel safe to share their ideas and vision with each other and be comfortable with the feedback, good or bad. This is the truest form of what a collaborative partnership is, and this level of familiarity, comfortability and security takes years to build and considerable effort to maintain.
I felt inclined to ask Romina about living in the States and how there must be countless options of creatives and branding experts that she could have tried for Rōam instead of opting to work with Mark again who still resides in Perth. She swiftly corrected me: “I always had Mark in mind. There is a fifteen-year creative and collaborative journey and friendship that we share that can't be replicated, no matter how many other creative experts exist.”
So there is a lot of history there, a coming-of-age journey that has gone through many iterations, weaving in and out from client to collaborator, to colleague as well as friend. When you turn up, when you show real interest, when you are building things together, when you connect on a personal and aesthetic level, when you see the other’s potential and believe in their dreams, it is impossible to not become friends. Both Mark and Romina reflect fondly on the longevity of their collaborative friendship, the ups as well as the downs. Mark’s role was one that supported a young Romina, validating her creative vision when she needed validation. Romina’s role for Mark was equally complementary, giving him inspiration and a creative outlet where he was free to explore and experiment, to apply his artistic and industry skills to a challenger brand that he could be just as much a part of.
These many layers to their friendship were the main reason for Romina’s initial nervousness in reaching out to Mark again, and also for her confidence that Mark was the only one she wanted to collaborate with on it too. “I knew deep down that he was the only person that could really see what I was trying to attempt. He always is,” she says. She sent Mark a lot of images, concept moods, typography, anything that felt like Rōam to her. “In the past, he did more of the initial brand building, creative direction, and I would give him feedback. This time around, I had a very specific outcome in mind, and Mark captured it perfectly.”
Speaking to Mark, Romina’s blend of vulnerability and confidence were the very qualities that piqued his interest in wanting to work with her in the first place. Romina was recommended to Block by a friend of theirs. They were impressed with Block’s international work experience, design perspective and sensibility, and most importantly that Mark took them and their dreams seriously. Mark recalls that he was taken by the distinctly unique way Romina dressed, her dark style, how she didn’t follow trends, and was, as he describes, ‘trendless’. It was not only refreshing, this freedom and rebellion that she embodied, but it happened to also align very well with his own rebellious spirit, his forever quest to challenge norms, to go against tradition, to test and bend the rules, to provoke the culture. Mark was also impressed by the charge of their drive and determination, wanting to really make an impact with such concept-driven stores, and not to mention the financial risk and investment that comes with the plight, given that Block was also a small business based in Perth wanting to make waves themselves.
ABOVE: Various unrealised collaborations.
These disruptive qualities are still part of both Romina and Mark’s personalities, but they have been strengthened and stretched in different ways. With the passing of time comes age, experience, awareness and wisdom. Romina's urge to disrupt has eased, taking a different route that still remains ‘trendless’ but speaks more to herself and the lifestyle she values rather than wanting to prove something major to the world. “I don't care about fashion or design trends which was very much part of my world back in the Test Tube and Zekka days,” she says. “I am more passionate about the kind of world we are leaving our children, and the causes and brands I support reflect that. I love seeing clients discover collections from far flung countries such as Ghana, South Africa and Portugal. That’s exciting and rewarding to me.”
And even for Mark, the branding for Rōam is quieter, peaceful, almost anti-disruption. In a society of oversharers, Rōam’s identity remains relatively private, unpublicised, everything pushed to an analog extreme. “The artwork and branding for Rōam is intended to be personal, intimate, and meaningful,” Romina tells me. “I wanted the font to feel handwritten. We don’t see a lot of handwritten notes anymore, there is something so special and nostalgic about a handwritten note.”
ABOVE: Mark’s visual experimentation for Rōam.
And so, with this specific direction in mind, paired with the sentimentality and understanding that comes with the longevity of their collaborative friendship, Mark unboxed his drawing inks, his paintbrushes and blank canvases, and channelled his artistic roots, steering away from his usual medium of software-based graphic design and embracing art in the purest and most traditional sense; of touching pencil to paper, playing with collage and the unexpected nature of colour and texture. Mark was creating a series of handmade tiles for the Rōam brand, pictures and paintings that conjured up “languid afternoons” and “places the sun shines upon.” An “impractical identity,” Mark tells me, because of how unscalable the branding is.
With Rōam, the creative cycle had recommenced, the muscle memory and cell renewal at work once again, the to-ing and fro-ing of ideas and visuals, everything free flowing. The only difference this time was that this connection and this particular project was happening in completely different time zones—Perth and Palm Springs—on opposite sides of the globe. Did this matter? Technology has been optimised to facilitate this means of communication, it is how interstate and international business is done. I asked Romina and Mark if this geographical distance had any impact, if technology, in this instance, inhibited or enhanced their creative and collaborative process? And this is where Mark and Romina’s collaborative experience differed, but only slightly. Romina was rather frustrated with the different time zones in relation to the immediacy of their communication. “In the past, we were in the same city, the same building, so we could work intensively on a project and spend hours brainstorming and developing ideas and concepts.” Mark, the designer of the Rōam tiles and compositions, the painter of its hand-drawn artwork, found ways to make the echo of geographical distance work. What it gave him was a chance to really sit with Romina’s idea and vision for the brand, afforded him the time to go through the silent steps required to interpret what she had presented to him, and also the space necessary to make it his own.
ABOVE: The finished Rōam manifesto.
Regardless of the pros and cons with a digitalised process of contact and communication, the collaborative result for Rōam turned out, as Romina had put it, “perfectly.” The brand identity is precious and painterly, with a sublime ‘life is beautiful’ sun-bleached quality to it that captures that innate sense of joy, longing and bliss you get from turning the pages of a family photo album full of holiday memories.
Rōam is another cherished collaboration between the two friends, despite the years that have passed, perhaps even because of it. But I suppose if you’ve known somebody for a long time, care, respect and creatively align with them too, there’s a whole lot you can gain from your relational nuances, the accuracy and intuitiveness of your perceptions, from what is said, but even from all that isn’t; the unsaid.
