The Philippine jeepney is a big part of Filipino culture, and with it came its own art scene. Pinoy are treated to hand-painted signages, air-brused exteriors, and even posh, club-like interiors with matching boom-boom audio whenever they go out. Adorned with big, colorful fonts, quicky characters, and funny captions, perhaps the art is simply a way to cope with the drab, dreary routine of daily commute.
Sadly, this may go away soon with the Jeepney Modernization Program, which aims to replace 15 year-old vehicles, such as the classic jeepney, with newer, supposedly safer, but also controversially more expensive vehicles.
The hari ng kalsada (king of Philippine streets) won’t be running the streets in the US anytime soon, but an artist from Queens, New York named Zach Reyes created his own version of what these hand-painted signboards of towns and cities in the US might look like:
Manilatown, San Francisco, USA and Union City, California, USA
National City, San Diego, USA and Daly City, California, USA
Woodside, Queens, New York, USA and Waipahu, Hawaii
St. Louis, Missouri, USA and Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Bergenfield, New Jersey, USA and Vallejo, San Francisco, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA and Kalihi, Hawaii
As of writing, the original Reddit post has over 1.4k upvotes. He has since released a second batch, and has hinted that he plans to do more.
Zach currently sells them as stickers, which you can order online here. You can also check out his official website and Instagram profile for more of his work.
We think these signs are pretty spot-on. What do you think?