Meet Thomas Torres | Graphic Designer & Marketer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Thomas Torres and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Thomas, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Social impact is actually a big deal for us, so much so we’ve incorporated it into our values and foundation. From the conception of our business, we knew we wanted a brand that was going to be eco-friendly, inclusive, and positive. While some of our methods do not match the way other, larger, companies do business, it helps set us apart from them even more!

One of our biggest focuses is to be as eco-friendly as possible, we never mass-produce our products. We focus on making our physical products once a customer has placed their order to ensure the appropriate amount of materials is being used. We also use Shopify Planet which is a program that calculates the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere per order and then funds a green initiative that will remove the same amount of carbon from the atmosphere.

Our other main focus is to be as inclusive and positive as possible for the LGBTQ+ community, their allies, and their families. To do this, we removed all gender labeling from our products so that no one has to feel like they are choosing a label or gender they do not feel comfortable with. All of our products are uni-sex/gender-neutral. We also try and create designs that represent as many identities within the community as possible. We know we haven’t reached everyone, but we’re working on it. Our goal is to give back to our community and try to be as involved as possible.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
This is such an interesting question for me because I’ve never really considered myself an artist. I’ve known so many talented artists who can paint or draw or create things from absolute scratch and I’m nowhere near them. If you give me a paintbrush or pencil, it will look like trash. However, when it comes to digital art, I’d like to think I’m decent. I find inspiration in everything around me and everything I see. I sometimes find it hard to form an idea organically but often times I see things or hear things and am instantly inspired. 90% of the designs I actually put on our products did not start off the way they look, they started as a sentence or as a single picture or as something and then they grew and grew the more I worked on it. I think the hardest part is that I’m mainly self-taught and so I will make something and think it is the best thing I’ve made and then a few months later, my skills have improved or I’ve learned a new tool and then I create something new and then it becomes my best design.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Unfortunately, I’ve not explored as much of the area as I’d like. I have only lived in Colorado Springs since April 2020 and immediately after, the world shut down. I would say, from what I’ve done thus far, the must-see places are The Summit, Garden of the gods, Manitou Springs, and Seven falls! Even though I’ve not been yet, I would use having a friend visiting as an opportunity to try some local restaurants and breweries.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think our success so far has really been in part to everyone I know! It is hard to dedicate to any one person. I can go all the way back to birth with my grandparents owning their own business and growing up in that environment and really seeing the entrepreneurial spirit they had but also the dedication and hard work. As far as more recently, my husband is definitely owed a huge thank you. The number of late nights and forced conversations when I’m conflicted on certain decisions. He is also the biggest critic telling me which of my designs are absolutely terrible and which he thinks will sell.

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