In conversation with Joan & Biel, founders of TWOJEYS
From the traditional to the digital, the jewelry empire has been from its beginnings a powerful and relevant sector, where the traditional and artisan methods have been the diferential point to determine the quality of the pieces of the high jewelry.
That’s how the founders behind Twojeys are: Joan and Biel, young, creative and ambitious with an inherent need to contribute something different, learning and improving themselves for years as influencers, have wanted to take a step further. Moved by passion, they decided to embark on this new adventure as entrepreneurs after a road trip along Route 66 from Las Vegas to Palm Springs to assist Coachella, with a notebook containing more than 100 product sketches and brand strategies. On July 29th 2019, Twojeys was launched. A brand of unisex jewelry, with which they wanted to demonstrate that quality, traditional heritage, an a ordable price and be sustainable, were not at all opposed to the conservation of Spain’s handcrafted jewelry, a fundamental part of TJ.
We had a great conversation with Joan & Biel about their brand and brand new collection.
What inspired the new SMILEY collection and what is the story behind the collection itself?
As a brand, We always have felt attached to the Urban Culture, from listening to 90s-2000 Hip Hip to Skating in our city since we were kids and so we wanted to put all our creativity and feelings in this special Collection. Creating a concept that goes far beyond product it's the most important thing for us, we wanted to give meaning to every piece of this collection by empowering all artists related to the urban culture, from skateboarding to singers, to any kind of artists out there with so much talent.
“Not happy Not sad” face represents balance in life, there is not a happy story without a bad chapter & we must enjoy the process. The Twojeys Happy/Sad Trademark magnet closing is our best piece so far.
What made you start your own jewellery brand and what experience inspired it?
We were about to go on a Road trip from Vegas to Palm Springs and we couldn’t find the type of jewelry that we were dreaming of. So in the middle of the desert, we realized that we had a good shot-creating what we love: creating jewels with a story behind.
Tell our readers about who you both are individually.
Biel 23 years old, born in Barcelona & Raised in A creative background: both parents graphic designers, Biel has always been a sports Lover & a good student. Have been working on social media for 5 years as a fashion influencer. In 2019 stopped his degree in economics at the University of Barcelona to follow his entrepreneurship soul and create Twojeys alongside his best friend Joan.
Joan 23 years old, born and raised in a little town near Barcelona, both parents entrepreneurs, since always, Joan loves to get involved in projects, mini DV films, analog photography, capturing raw moments with the homies, pizza and road trips. Spent 2 years studying in the USA and snowboarding every day, later on, joined an entrepreneurship program and ended up in San Francisco for a couple of months, then started to work on social media while going to college and finally quitting college and partnering with Biel to create the brand we always dreamed of.
How did the current crazy times influence your creativity and development of your newly launched brand?
We are feeling lucky. Seeing all the impotence other entrepreneurs are living to not be able to work or even leaving their projects. We have been very lucky we have grown x10 since we started. We have been able to focus and grow our team from 4 to 14 people, so we can focus more on the creative side and make sure everyone has a big impact on the brand, every day.
It’s always about finding amazing opportunities during bad times: we knew brands wouldn’t do any press trips or big social media campaigns during summer fearing the public opinion, so we decided to do a 1 monthly campaign (covid free) letting all our influencer friends live the Twojeys Experience in a Summer Villa, so we had all the attention and we could connect even more with our friends and brand supporters.
TWOJEYS is a unisex brand. What made you create a genderless brand?
The jewelry industry is very polarized, between a soft feminine universe and a heavy metal rock vibe. So we wanted to do something different and be the boyish brand that cool girls like to wear. It is a difficult job to target both markets but has been very successful and interested in a creative way. We are trying to keep improving our collections and designs so we can internationalize the brand and become something global.
What is your first experience with fashion? And what made you embark on a profession in this industry?
It made it a little easier for us to start this project since we are on both sides of the business and we have all the KNOW-HOW in terms of managing campaigns, how to treat all the influencers we work with, how to post, how to create the content, hiring talents, etc.
Tell us something about TWOJEYS that is not on your resume.
We have some crazy ideas for the future for our International expansion, from hiring new talents to making movies all around. This year the Twojeys Villa is going to be something else with lots of special guests. Twojeys might have the first touch on the Offline world by 2021 and … we have some partnerships ready that we can't wait to show you!
Your new collection has a variety of cool necklaces, rings, earrings and more. Tell us more about the novelties and key pieces of your collection?
The Not Happy Not Sad Necklace is definitely a masterpiece in this collection, it was our first product design of the entire collection. The magnet gives a special feel and uniqueness, with two chain sizes & two different lengths for Him&Her.
The Cuban chain has a lot of power in this collection since it's an evolution of the hip-hop jewelry movement that began in the late '70s to mid-80s, so we wanted to use a chain that shared a similar story of the campaign.
Read more about them and check out their new collection: https://twojeys.com
Timotej Letonja
