KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 2 -- Most people spend their 50th year reflecting on the past or settling into a comfortable routine.

But corporate trainer and TEDx speaker Imran Zainal decided to turn the entire Klang Valley into a message to the nation.

In an extraordinary feat of GPS art that spanned 1,230 square kilometres - larger than the landmass of Singapore - Imran spent 12 days driving and walking to trace a massive, legible message across the map: "Happy Msia Day. Create As 1. And Rise."

While the final image is digital GPS art, the journey to create it was far from smooth.

It was a gruelling, solitary pursuit that saw Imran navigating construction sites, wading through unkempt cemeteries and battling the limitations of map data, all wh...