SINGAPORE: After seeing something impressionable while traveling around Taiwan, a Singaporean man returned home with a rather creative idea for Singaporean MRT stations.
Noticing custom stamps of train stations, during his visit to Taipei in July 2022, the man said: “And so after coming back to Singapore, I had the inspiration to do something similar to that.”
Beginning with researching about the history of each area, and collecting images of buildings and significant things related to that area, the creative Singaporean then worked on carving out his traced image on a piece of rubber. The viral video documented his work and dedication to the brilliant idea.
“Eventually, I hope to see these stamps in MRT stations, similar to how someone gave a diorama of Jurong East station earlier this year,” he said. “To do this, I am thinking of giving these stamps out under LTA’s Gift of art programme. Hopefully, this can become an official thing and even involve the ;local community in designing a stamp unique to their station!”
Singaporeans react to man’s creativity
Many netizens responded to the video, which was also shared in an online forum.
“This is a great thing to have in Singapore!” said one. “Love finding and chopping the stamps at the tourist attraction in Japan! Kudos (STB/ LTA) to you and do hope the relevant authority take it up and credit you.”
“A Singaporean doing a meaningful project for Singapore, thumbs up,” wrote another.
One commenter commended, “What a great initiative! Could even have a ‘collect em all’ special notebook that could be sold as merch.”
“Love the idea! Doesn’t even need to be a stamp,” shared an interested fellow citizen, “Would love a brass rubbing plaque which we can bring our own scrap books and pencils to shade.”
Others helped the man by sharing some ideas he could use to make improvements to the stamps, such as using a 3D printer. “I’m just spitballing, I have no idea about 3D printing but is it possible to 3D print it?” wrote one netizen, “Convert the design to 3D using blender and print it on a rubber-like resin…Might take some time to learn the skills but might be worth if you are planning to make stamps for every station.”
Impressed by the Singaporean’s idea, a group of commenters also suggested that he could take this project to the retail sphere and even profit from it. One Redditor, Abel Ang, proposed that the stamp creator should bring the idea to the Singapore Tourism Board as it could “boost engagement, exploration, economy” for both stations and shops.
Inspired, the artist replied: “Great idea, I think STB would be a better entity to propose this idea! I also like the idea on shops selling their own design – I had a similar idea where stamps would change over time as the place changes, or instead of 1 stamp, people could contribute to a collection of stamps at each station.”