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Eng Siak Loy (翁锡礼) Eng Siak Loy (翁锡礼)

Eng Siak Loy (翁锡礼)

A graphic artist whose works have touched many everyday aspects of life in Singapore, including its currency

(1941 —, b. China)

Born in Chao'an county in Guangdong province, Eng left for Singapore with his mother when he was eight to join his father and maternal grandfather.

After graduating from the now-defunct Singapore Art Academy in 1960, he started worked as a graphic artist with the former Radio and Television Singapore. He then moved to the Ministry of Education to become a senior graphic artist. In 1972, he started working at the Housing and Development Board where he stayed for 18 years. Amongst his work there included updating the agency's logo which is still in use today. Eng then moved on to the National Parks Board in 1990, where he worked in its graphic and art department until he retired in 2009.

In addition to his day job where he designed a variety of materials that communicated the government's policies and faces to the public, Eng also had time to design postal stamps, coins and currency notes on the side. He first started designing stamps in 1969 when he was approached by fellow artist and designer Choy Weng Yang who was then on the Stamp Advisory Committee. His stamp designs for the 25th Plenary Session of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) became the first of over 50 issues he has created. In 1999, Eng designed the entire Portrait Series of Singapore currency notes featuring Singapore's first Head of State Yusof Ishak—which are still in use today.

In 2007, Eng was awarded the President's Design Award's Designer of the Year. His youngest child Tze-Ngan has also followed in his footsteps. Not only does he run a graphic design studio with his father, he has become a stamp designer too.


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