Kieran Hadley: I've made mirrorballs for Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue, says Leeds signwriter

Having made a glitterball, or mirrorball as they are also known, for superstar Kylie Minogue earlier this year, Hadley, a former teacher and Leeds Arts University graduate, has just completed one for Katy Perry for her current The Lifetimes Tour.

"I was asked by the promoters of Kylie’s tour to make a mirrorball for her,” says Leeds based Hadley. "They had an idea what they wanted but I just knew it wouldn’t work mainly due to the shape of the mirrorball. I was worried I had done myself out of a job but I came up with something else and they came back a few days later and said they oved it – and apparently so did Kylie.”

Hadley was a secondary school English teacher for 12 years in East Leeds during which time he did a Masters at Leeds Arts University. Through that he ‘accidently’ fell in to sign painting and then ‘jumped ship’ to become a fulltime sign painter, becoming known for his use of gold leaf.

Then one day he was approached by the owners of Roller Girl in the Corn Exchange and asked if he could paint a mirrorball for them.

"I couldn’t see why not and so spent some time working it out and made it for them. They have become quite trend, particularly on social media, there is definitely a magpie element that people get very excited about shiny things.”

Although not his main job, Hadley whose company is called Third Eye Designs says demand for the mirrorballs is increasing, particularly with Instagram home influencers.

He did some for the maximalist designer Siobhan Murphy, from Castleford, who was finalist in the BBC series Interior Design Master hosted by Alan Carr.

“My work appeared on the episode where she made over a shop in Hebden Bridge and it ended being almost like a store front for me as quite a lot of people contacted me after that asking if I could make one for them.”

Kylie and Katy Perry aren’t the only celebrities to own one of Hadley’s mirrorballs.

“I did an NSPCC charity auction and took two of my pieces over to auction in Manchester and the girl who was organising it asked me if there was any way I could do a mirrorball and so I did with some Joy Division lyrics wrapped around it.” When Peter Hook, Joy Division’s former bassist saw the mirrorball he bought it straight away even offering to pay extra.

When it came to Katy Perry’s mirrorball Hadley was more confident about what he was doing as he knew what would work.

"As well as the name of the tour on the mirrorball they also wanted a Union Jack in a butterfly. So I had to work out how to bend a butterfly round a mirroball and make sure I didn’t get the flag upside down and do the red white and blue in glitter.”

The effects are stunning, but Hadley explains the process is pretty low tech.

"I buy in the polystyrene ball of different sizes with mirrored tiles on. I then get a mixing bowl and sit in side and draw on the ball with wax pencils and then paint like I would with sign writing but it does take quite a long time as you have to paint over all these small mirrored tiles.

"It requires certain design elements. Certain script styles work well as you need to try to almost wrap the words round a 3D shape. It requires some 3D design.”

When not making mirrorballs Hadley can often be found up a ladder in Leeds painting shop fronts, often in gold leaf, or even large scale murals although sign writing didn’t come naturally to him.

“I thought naively I’d be good at sign writing as I’d done calligraphy and graffiti – I was terrible. But it really made me get my teeth into it and once I got into it is didn’t take long before I really got the hang of it.” Hadley says that people really respond to hand painted things.

"As soon as I do a shop in one area shops down the road start to realise that their vinyl printed signs don’t look as good in comparison. People also assume that it will be a lot more expensive to hand paint a shop front but having spoken to people who have had quotes to put up vinyl letters, because I do all of the elements from the drawing it out, to the installing it often works out cheaper.”

So what inspired him to become a sign writer?

“I started signwriting when I was teaching English, and doing a master's at Leeds Arts University. I wanted to make a giant resource for a poetry lesson I used to do using old laminate floor pieces.

“And then I saw a sign writer called Brian the Brush up a ladder painting the sign for a coffee shop in Headingly. It was so careful and perfect I just loved it."

You would think a head for heights is a must in Hadley’s line of work. “I’m actually afraid of heights which most people don’t believe.”

He has most recently been working at Abbey House Museum in Leeds which was very challenging.

“Not only did I have to be up a ladder but it was a curved surface and there was a lamppost in front and so I had to stand on a ladder and then climb round a lamppost – working left and right handed doing script that was all perfect and smooth,” he says.

Hadley has taught courses on how to create large scale murals. “A lot of people assume you just go up a ladder or a scissor lift and start painting a massive mural. There are a lot of things like, proportion and layout that you have to get your head around. Once you are up there you can’t just go up and paint and somehow know what it looks like from the ground.

The biggest mural of his at the moment in Leeds is at Bruntswood and is more than 40 metres tall and made up of poetry written by West Yorkshire’s Youth Poet Laureate Isabelle Walker and officially unveiled by Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin in May.

Hadley needed scaffolding for the mural which has the added complication of being on three sides of the building.

"It’s 20 lines of poetry around three sides of the building. It is definitely one of the hardest things I have to do. It wasn’t my design but it had to be perfect. The poem also had a lot of repeats of lines and words so I spent the whole time terrified I was going to mix up some of the lines. YOU can’t have been a poetry and and English teacher and make mistake at any point.

"I did make one mistake half way through when I left one brick too many – luckily I caught it before I got to the end of the line.”

And it doesn’t always go according to plan, particularly when the Yorkshire weather is taken into account.

"I did a really complicated mural in Wakefield which was entirely hand drawn with no computers involved. And just as I had finished it a storm came over the horizon hit the paint and dumped all the colour down the wall. There’s nothing to be done. I just had to watch it run down the gutter. I had to leave it three days and then go back and start again.

"You can see why the culture of murals and street art is so big in places like California they can paint year round with hardly any worry about the weather. I have to put a stop on it at the end of October through to March.”

He also does branding having just designed the lettering for the new Northern Monk Beer as well as creating his own Yorkshire inspired logos including ‘Ey Up’ pin badges.

"Having ADHD helps me bounce between things,” says Hadley.