Spirit of Singapore
PROJECT FOCUS
Artist Collaboration | Live Cultural Activation | Video Storytelling | Experiential Design
A carbon-absorbing mural experience designed to live across two continents that became the visual anchor of the world's first GSTC-certified sustainable destination.
Singapore Tourism Board
Marina Bay Sands
CLIENTDavid Maldonado
LEAD ARTISTUnited by Design
PRODUCERPCMA Convening Leaders 2025
PCMA APAC The Business of Events 2025
EVENTS
A claim
that needed
proof.
01 - THE BRIEFSingapore had just been awarded the world's first GSTC-certified sustainable destination. They were preparing for two of the most important moments on the global business events calendar — PCMA Convening Leaders 2025 in Houston in January, and PCMA APAC: The Business of Events at Marina Bay Sands in April.
The mandate was to make their sustainability story tangible at both, in a way the industry would actually remember.
Singapore Tourism Board had already seen the mural experience United by Design produced with artist David Maldonado for MGME and Marble London at IMEX 2023. They wanted that energy — participatory, beautifully made, anchored by a working artist — but they needed it to do more. It had to carry a sustainability proof point. And it had to live across two continents in three months.
Engineered
for two
lives.
02 - THE MOVEWe built the program around UXD's carbon-absorbing mural — paint that pulls CO₂ from the air as it cures — and engineered it from day one as a modular system. One artwork. Two events. Same mural, two cultural contexts.
The wall system was designed to be painted in Houston with 100+ delegates picking up a brush, dismantled, crated, and shipped to Marina Bay Sands for re-installation, paired with a 60-second documentary piece recapping the Houston build for the Singapore audience.
Art.
Story.
Connection.
03 - THE THREE LAYERSUXD designs every project across three layers from the first conversation. Most agencies stop at the art. We build all three.
LAYER ONEDavid Maldonado designed the mural as a tribute to Singapore — Marina Bay Sands' iconic architecture, the Merlion, Gardens by the Bay, and the otters of Marina Bay rendered in his signature style. Painted in carbon-absorbing pigment that actively reduces CO₂ as it cures, the artwork itself became an environmental instrument rather than a symbol of one.
THE ART
LAYER TWOThe mural was documented as it was made. A 60-second film traveled with the crated artwork to Singapore, giving APAC delegates the full origin story. Editorial coverage followed — PCMA Convene magazine featured the project as a sustainability conversation starter, and Marina Bay Sands ran it across the editorial recap of The Business of Events.
THE STORY
LAYER THREE157 PCMA delegates picked up a brush and painted alongside David Maldonado in Houston. Signage routed each painter through a QR code, turning a creative moment into a measurable database of leads for Singapore Tourism Board and Marina Bay Sands. The mural became the room where the partnership was made.
The Connection
04 - THE RESULTSWHAT IT DID ONCE IT WAS BUILT.
157
PCMA delegates who picked up a brush and painted the mural with David Maldonado in Houston.
Painter-Participantsone
Carbon AbsorptionCarbon captured by the artwork as it cured — equivalent to a mature tree's annual absorption.
130G
VOC Production FootprintThe full mural's emissions footprint to produce — equivalent to driving 130 miles.
05 - PRESSindustry Coverage
PCMA Convene Magazine"BOE participants were greeted with a commissioned piece of artwork that had a sustainability story to tell at the event entrance — a tribute to Singapore featuring Marina Bay Sands' iconic architecture, Gardens by the Bay, the Merlion, and the otters that reside around Marina Bay."
Sustainability Conversation Starters for Event Strategists · Michelle Russell
Marina Bay Sands Editorial"The mural reflected delegates' active commitment to a net-zero future where business events and sustainability work in harmony."
Throwback to PCMA APAC: The Business of Events and The Meetings Show APAC in April · marinabaysands.com