Graphic designers create MRT-inspired "Reserved Seating" tent cards to chope seats

Will you save your seat for a hungry office worker in need?

Guan Zhen Tan | March 27, 2018, 06:43 PM

This is the next thing you can chope your tables for lunch with.

Instead of your usual tissue paper packets or someone's handbag sprawled unglamorously (and might we mention also riskily) over the table, these neat little tent cards take a stab at our MRT's reserved seating signage.

And instead of simply porting the MRT sign's illustrations of pregnant ladies and elderly folk, these cards bear stickmen of a more relevant nature to office workers, such as one slumped at a desk piled high with paperwork, and a hungry office worker impatiently looking at his or her watch.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgp1TBenCPZ/

The other panel of the tent card also indicates how many seats at the table are taken, hence also welcoming others searching for a table to join them if they so desired:

[related_story]

Unique visuals

The cards were dreamt up by two graphic designers who work around the Ubi area.

According to one of them who spoke to Mothership, the idea comes from the way people often use their business cards to reserve seats at hawker centres.

"We work around Ubi area where “reserving” seats with name cards are the norm. Pretty sure it is that way everywhere else. We... thought that it’d be cool to have something special that stands out."

While they were initially just going to print the word "reserved" in big and bold red letters with some catchy tagline, they eventually opted to take it one step further, making use of the familiar visuals you see above reserved seats on the MRT.

Not for sale

Want one for yourself? Sorry to disappoint, but they're not for sale.

The designers say the stickmen were not drawn by them, and so cannot be reproduced for commercial use — this means they're pretty much meant for entertainment purposes.

A bit of a shame given how ingenious this idea is, but hey — you could always make one for yourself.

All images via Padf_ot on Instagram