When Alipay knocked on our doors, they wanted something visually appealing and impactful for their Chinese New Year celebration in Singapore.

For those who don’t know, ALIPAY is the biggest and most sophisticated mobile wallet in China, and soon the world.

Wait, why Singapore, we asked? Well, Chinese travellers were the city’s top shoppers last year, logging $2.8m in tourist receipts. What! That’s a lot of paper transactions (and trees felled).

Say no more, Alipay. You’ve got us on board to design an outdoor art installation that promotes “care for our environment, and kill less trees!” We love a good challenge, and one that served meaning.

Some like cash-on-demand. We digital nomads prefer paperless shopping. We toyed with featuring “receipts” in our initial concept but canned it quickly, as slips of white paper allude to bad luck in Asian cultures. “The little red packet” (fondly known as ang paos by Singaporeans) eventually became our key design motif, teasing a bigger idea at play…