Emblem: Digital Souvenirs

Emblem was born at the Universal Expo 2020 in Dubai, a global event that brought together 192 countries and welcomed more than 25 million visitors. Amid the scale and spectacle, founder Daniel Michels noticed something striking: most visitors were rushing past the stories, the artworks, and the people behind each pavilion. The cultural content was present, but largely unseen.

A moment crystallized this realization. During a conversation with an artist from Chad, Daniel learned that the artist was unable to sell the paintings he had brought from his country. They were simply too large to transport, too expensive for casual visitors, and ultimately incompatible with the fleeting nature of the Expo experience. Meanwhile, those same visitors were eagerly lining up for something else entirely: a simple stamp in their Expo Passport souvenir. More than one million of these passports were sold.

This contrast was impossible to ignore.

Daniel understood the artist's frustration deeply. Having grown up with an artist mother, he had seen firsthand how creative work can struggle to find its audience, not because it lacks value, but because the format is wrong. That insight sparked a question: what if the act of collecting stamps could be transformed into something meaningful, artistic, and lasting?

From that question, Emblem took shape.

Daniel reimagined the passport stamp as a digital collectible: fun to gather, easy to carry, but rich in cultural value. Something artistic yet accessible. Authentic, educational, and genuinely memorable. A souvenir that reflects the soul of a place, rather than reducing it to a trinket.

Emblem brings souvenirs into the digital age. It transforms the Expo Passport into a "World Digital Passport," where stamps become emblems: digital artworks created by artists from around the world. And unlike the Expo, Emblem is not limited by time or location. It exists everywhere, always, allowing culture, art, and memory to be collected wherever people travel.