traça.studio

I started a clothing brand at fifteen, and I've been making things ever since.

Story_

At fifteen I started a clothing brand because I didn't want to dress like everyone else. I drew a sheep, and it ran as a t-shirt brand for more than six years. I built the identity, wrote the messaging, directed the campaigns, found a community of riders, placed the production, sold it online and at events, and opened a physical shop. Every part of building a brand, learned by doing it.

Along the way I studied graphic design, worked in bikeshops, volunteered at La Poma Bikepark, and moved to Barcelona, where I stumbled into a tattoo apprenticeship. It taught me patience, and how to listen to what someone actually wants. None of it was really planned. But it all made sense while it was happening.

The thread has always been the same: find something that matters, learn, make something with it.

Managing La Poma Bikepark, one of Europe's most recognised dirt jump parks, taught me how to build and lead something bigger than myself. Then I moved to Canada in 2021 and kept working in the bike industry.

The man who gave me my first job here later asked me to go into business with him. We started The Ti Bolt in 2023, making titanium bicycle bolts. He takes care of the product and the factory, I built the brand and run everything around it. In 2024 I joined SRAM.

History_
2005
Founded XAI Clothing · La Poma volunteer
Built a clothing brand for the dirt jump and BMX scene from naming and identity through to campaigns, riders, print and digital advertising, e-commerce and events. Nationally recognised in its niche. Volunteered at La Poma Bikepark from day one and designed its first logo, which was pretty bad, even for a fifteen-year-old kid.
2007
Graphic design school · first industry roles
Studied graphic design while working in a clothing manufacturer's design department, then years of bikeshop sales and in-house design, learning the product and the customers at the same time.
2009
Moved to Barcelona
Moved to the city to finish my graphic design studies, working weekends in a bikeshop and keeping XAI going alongside it.
2012
XAI FARM retail store · tattoo apprenticeship
Opened XAI FARM in the basement of Backside BCN, built by hand with a mini ramp inside. Retail, concerts, events and community in one room. It had a short run and it cost me most of what I had. I took a job on the floor of one of the city's biggest bikeshops to keep myself going, then decided it was time to move on. Tattooing arrived, and I worked at it professionally for several years.
2015
La Poma Bikepark, full time then co-founder
After a break from volunteering I got called back to help at weekends. That turned into a full-time job, with tattooing becoming the thing I did on the side. Then we took the place over ourselves. The riders and the workers founded the company that ran the park, so the people using it were the ones looking after it. Events, marketing, sponsors and partners, including Happy Ride Weekend, the park's main event of the year. We also built dirt jump parks, pumptracks and race tracks for others around us. It grew into an internationally recognised destination.
2019
Suspension mechanic · move to Canada
I decided it was time to move on from the bikepark. I wanted to get to Canada, and my thinking was that the surest way into the bike industry in BC was to be a genuinely good mechanic, so I took a job as a bike and suspension technician in Barcelona and started the visa application at the same time. I moved in 2021.
2021
Obsession Bikes, North Vancouver
My first job in Canada. Service writing when it was needed, and looking after the younger mechanics on the floor. It's also where I met the person I'd later start The Ti Bolt with.
2023
Co-founder, The Ti Bolt
The man who hired me at Obsession asked me to go into business with him. We started in April 2023, making titanium bicycle bolts. I built the brand from scratch and run everything on the marketing side: identity, messaging, content, social, ambassadors, and the online store. He handles product, factory, quality and fulfilment.
2024
Senior STS Technician, SRAM Canada
Technical service and support across SRAM and RockShox product. Two decades of riding, mechanics and industry knowledge in one role.
Now_
Currently
  • Senior STS Technician, SRAM Canada
  • Co-founder & marketing, The Ti Bolt
  • Freelance brand, web & illustration
  • Tattooing on the side
  • Catalan, Spanish, English
  • Riding whenever possible
Disciplines
  • Brand strategy, identity & naming
  • Messaging, copy & tone of voice
  • Campaigns, art direction & content
  • Social media & community
  • Ambassadors, riders & partnerships
  • Events & activations
  • Web design, development & e-commerce
  • Illustration & graphic design
  • Tattooing
Name_

traça is Catalan. The line a pencil leaves, the mark of a needle, a stroke. It also means skill: the knack for making something properly.