Fuji Xerox Singapore participates in Smile Campaign at Clarke Quay Central

Clarke Quay Central mall has announced Smile Singapore*, an advocacy campaign that aims to promote a happier nation in conjunction with Singapore's Jubilee celebrations.

"Happiness is contagious and by displaying photos of beaming faces, we hope to remind our fellow Singaporeans that there are thousands of reasons to smile in Singapore," said Caine Teo, head of Ape Works, the Creative Partner of the Smile Singapore Campaign.

The campaign aims to break its own Largest Display of Photos record* by collecting 10,000 smiling faces this year, 5,000 of which will form a giant photo mural. 

With the help of event partner Fuji Xerox Singapore, the smiling portraits are printed, laminated and pieced together with others to create a giant photoscape to be completed by 3 May 2015. The photoscape will line the first through third floors of Clarke Quay Central.

Photos are taken here, and sent wirelessly through a shared folder over to a computer for processing.

The pictures are printed with a high-speed wide format colour inkjet printer. Each 1,600 x 1,600 dpi picture takes under 5 seconds. The CMYK dye ink used gives a natural colour and dries quickly.

The printer, a DocuWide C842, prints seven A0 sheets a minute in colour, and has a maximum resolution of 1,600 x 1,600 dpi. Such printers are ideal for event environments such as Smile Singapore, where prints are needed quickly, but can also offer an advantage for printing posters to be used in marketing and advertising.

The pictures are then laminated for more durability. A protective matte film is applied at medium heat. The lamination processing is provided by Fuji Xerox's partner iSuccess Solutions. 

Each laminated picture is trimmed here.

The pictures are then laid out for the photo mural. This is work in progress for the photo mural on the first floor.

The company is also introducing a CSR component, made more meaningful as this is Fuji Xerox Singapore's 50th year in Singapore. "We are delighted to be partnering with Clarke Quay Central in this Smile Campaign initiative. CSR is a big part of Fuji Xerox's core values and integrated at the core of everything we do. It is also a reflection of who we are and what we support as a company," said Bert Wong, Chief Executive Officer of Fuji Xerox Singapore.

"For every photo submitted to Smile Campaign, we have pledged to donate five dollars to our main beneficiary – Beyond Social Services – to enable and empower children and youth from less privileged families to help them achieve better opportunities in their life."

A representative from Fuji Xerox shared that 1,100 digital portraits had already been taken between 9am and 7pm on the 29th. 

Interested?

Get down to Clarke Quay Central or upload your picture and stories at the Smile Singapore website.

*The Smile Singapore campaign, a project by Clarke Quay Central, was first conceptualised after a Gallup Poll in 2012 when Singapore was rated as the most emotionless and unhappy nation in the world. A total of 1,909 smiling portraits were collected and laid out in Clarke Quay Central in 2013, breaking the Singapore's Book of Records for the ‘largest display of photos'. The most recent World Happiness Report ranked Singapore 24^th , an improvement from the previous surveys done.