No advertising agency please

We love Photoshop - photos of the factory by J with his Nokia

Mr and Mrs Tan run a T-shirt silkscreen place at the top floor of a factory block at Paya Lebar. I spoke to Mr Tan over the phone before we trooped there yesterday (aiya, in my rush, I left the house without the Tshirt designs, heh) - and corrected some of our preconceptions about each other:

Y: So I just bring the file to your place, a CD or...
Mr Tan: I got no computer. Just print on paper and bring.
Y: No computer...? Oh, ok.
Mr Tan: So what school you from ah?
Y: Er, no, I am not in school... [you won't charge me more because I am not a jobless 16 year-old right?]

So what kind of place does Mr Tan run?

Well, besides having no computers, a sign outside his shop declared:
No salesagent
No middleman
No advertising agency

Whew, lucky it didn't say "No civil servants"!

Behind the wooden door is a cool, dark, musty room - a place for mushrooms to...mushroom. There were silkscreens lying around against the wall and the corridor outside. T-shirts were hanging from the ceiling everywhere and on the floor were giant bags of new T-shirts. At the centre of the room were 2 canteen tables placed side by side. About 4 clotheslines ran above the table, and newly printed t-shirts were draped across the lines. Right beside the entrance was a cupboard whose sliding doors open to reveal...Mr Tan's office space, lit by a single flourescent tube.

J and I, we went away really liking Mr and Mrs Tan's T-shirt printing business - and their time machine.