Prince Jai Is the Creative Director Who Showed Up Before the Opportunity Did

Somewhere in Chicago, there is a sixth grade video of Prince Jai telling the camera two things: that he would go to culinary school and that he wanted to do carpentry on the side. Years later, deep into a career built on woodworking, fabricating, and bringing other people’s creative visions to life, he watched it back. “That’s crazy to have seen that video. I completely forgot I said that. But here we are.”

It wasn’t a straight line getting there. He was a cars and sports kid in high school, taking auto classes instead of woodshop, and had no reason to think carpentry was in his future. But, he had ideas, and eventually the ideas needed somewhere to live. If he couldn’t pitch them to someone and have them accepted, then someone had to be able to bring them to life. He decided that someone would be him. “It was like a missing piece.” What started as a way to realize his own creative vision became something much larger once the market told him what it actually needed.

The pivot happened almost by accident. Prince Jai was studying the work of artists and creatives whose stores and experiences felt meticulously built out, fully realized worlds that made their art drops and shows feel like events. He wanted that for his own work. So he started building it himself, doing whatever it took to get close to that level.