JYXDI made the decision to drop out of university to focus on her art career, which is a courageous one considering the tremendous value that the Tamil community places on degrees as a marker of success. The decision didn’t go well with her family, but it only made her work harder to improve her craft and business to become the success she is today.
What made you start the JYXDI brand? And how did you come up with the name?
The reason for me to start JYXDI was because I wanted to create my own brand which involved my art and vision. JYXDI is basically my name altered a bit, When you replace X with O it becomes JYODI, which typically sounds like my name JYOTHEE. Also it made a perfect logo, X being the paintbrushes.
I feel like this is the “Golden Age of the Creator Economy” where it’s never been easier to be a creator and monetize as a creator. Would you say that this statement is accurate – has this been your experience?
This has definitely been the case for me as my social media brand and widespread adoption of e-commerce has helped me grow my business quickly. Instagram especially has been good for me because the artwork I post there has got me a lot of clients globally.
As a young, female Tamil entrepreneur – do you feel like you’ve experienced things that your fellow male entrepreneurs would not?
When it comes to painters, i’ve usually only come across male artists, so being a female artist- it was challenging at first and I had a lot of doubts about whether it would all work out. But I did what I usually do, believed in my craft and forged ahead to success.
You have some notable brands that were clients of yours that you’ve worked with including OVO and COACH. How did you land these clients?
OVO40 (Noah Shebib), who is Drake’s producer contacted me on Instagram (via DM) and I had the wonderful opportunity to create a pair of shoes for his niece. I also gave him a painting for the studio. I did a collaboration with COACH in 2019, as it was Michael B. Jordan’s Naruto clothing line. I was flown out to New York to represent COACH at Comic-Con, where I also ended up creating artwork for Michael B. Jordan where he was a Naruto character. Afterwards, we ended up making a video at the COACH headquarters to promote the artwork.
You’re almost at 150K Instagram followers which is quite an accomplishment. How did you grow your account so quickly?
I consistently posted content (different artwork) on my account every day. There was no magic to it. People would regularly see my work and my process, which got them interested in ordering items from me.
