Chen Xi starts side hustle selling cat & dog stickers, wants it to become S’pore’s Hello Kitty – Mothership.SG

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It’s possible you’ll know Chen Xi as a Mediacorp actor, or—we’ll tackle the apparent—because the son of native actors Xiang Yun and Edmund Chen.

Apart from being an artiste, nevertheless, Chen can also be an artist, as his 35,000 Instagram followers might know.

This man can clearly draw:

Offered 10 work to native gallery

His Instagram followers aren’t the one ones who admire his aptitude, as a result of a neighborhood gallery lately purchased 10 of Chen’s tremendous artwork work for about S$1,000 – S$2,000 every.

We won’t reproduce them right here, in fact, however they’re at the moment on show at Serenity Gallery in Bras Basah Advanced.

Chen sells his prints beneath The Xi Atelier (a.okay.a. The Eleventh Atelier, as a result of he likes his puns), the place costs of his basic, non-commissioned items go from S$28 – S$78.

“That is extra of tremendous arts, however I additionally needed to do one thing cute, one thing to achieve different folks,” Chen tells Mothership.

Here is the place Nekolour is available in.

Nekolour provides customised pet stickers for its patrons, but it surely’s at the moment restricted to cats and canine designs in the mean time, because the group continues to ramp up its manpower.

Regardless of it being his second aspect hustle along with his predominant job within the leisure business, Chen is patently invested in it.

And we do not imply it in a monetary sense, too.

On the day of our assembly, Chen says that he had spent just a few hours reducing this stack of stickers by hand:

Each of us questioned if he might have higher spent the time, however got here to no good conclusion.

Chen’s zeal comes via most clearly in his speech, the place he rattles on (a commendable trait in any interviewee, this author can attest) in response to my questions.

Comforting a buddy

Like many start-ups in its infancy, the origins of Nekolour might be traced again to the Covid-19 interval.

Chen discovered that his buddy was in mourning after her pet canines handed away.

“After which she was like, you recognize, it is simply unhappy. However she’s unhappy for months. Then you recognize, it is like a spiral that you just can not get out of.”

To assist her via the robust interval, Chen gifted her an illustration of her pets within the type of a Japanese fortunate attraction.

“I needed it to [represent] goodwill, good intentions for the particular person to heal and to get better, and all the time remind themselves that they’re nonetheless being liked,” he continues.

Costs begin at S$68 for 2 customised illustrations, whereas the most important — and costliest — package deal, which features a set of pins and blockchain authentication (i.e. an NFT), prices S$168.

However Chen assures me that it is not in regards to the cash for him.

“[…] This service is actually for individuals who, typically [need] therapeutic,” Chen says. “If not, I will simply go into tremendous arts already what,” he laughs.

When requested how enterprise has been since its inception a few years in the past, the actor replies that it is “nonetheless okay,” though Covid-19 has made it onerous to achieve out to the group.

Chen, who personally attracts each single piece of artwork, juggles his showbiz job alongside managing Nekolour’s orders.

The actor additionally has fairly lofty ambitions for Nekolour, akin to hoping to in the future work with pet-related industries to lift funds for charity.

“So I am wanting in a means that it may be like, the Hi there Kitty, however from Singapore.”

You possibly can try the enterprise right here, and within the meantime, catch Chen on the radio at 987FM, the place he hosts each Sunday from 10am to 2pm.

Prime picture by Mandy How