There are briefs, and then there are briefs.
“Cover a 75-metre stretch of Birmingham in Peaky Blinders” is firmly in the second category. Instructed by Central BID and delivered in association with Netflix and Castle Fine Art, Phase 2 of the iconic Peaky Blinders mural is now complete, sitting large and unmissable in the city that gave the Shelbys their mythology. It stopped people in their tracks while it was going up. It’s stopping them now it’s finished.
For Hollywood Monster, it was three days of work that felt like a lot more. In the best possible way.
Birmingham’s most-watched installation
There’s something about working in a city that genuinely loves what you’re putting up. The Peaky Blinders story is deeply woven into Birmingham’s identity, and you felt that on site. Passersby stopped. Phones came out. Opinions were offered, freely and at volume, which is very Birmingham. Every panel that went up got its own audience.
That kind of attention raises the stakes. When half the city is watching you work, there’s no such thing as a small error. Every edge, every join, every panel has to land exactly right, because thousands of people are going to stand in front of this thing and look at it very closely. The Shelby family didn’t tolerate sloppiness, and neither does the city they came from.
Which made it the perfect job for a team that takes precision seriously.
Three days, 75 metres, no margin for error
Scale is one thing. Scale with a deadline is another challenge entirely. From print to install, the full 75m x 2.5m mural was completed in three days, a turnaround that requires everything in the production process to perform without hesitation.
That starts long before anyone arrives on site. Materials have to be produced to exact specifications, cut cleanly and consistently, packed and sequenced so that installation runs in order.
A mural at this size isn’t a single piece; it’s a series of panels that have to read as one seamless image when they’re up. If the cuts aren’t sharp, the joins show. If the panels aren’t sequenced correctly, you’re problem-solving on a ladder with an audience watching. Neither of those things happened here.
The Shelbys, famously, hid razor blades in their caps. Hollywood Monster’s edges are considerably sharper, and deployed for more constructive purposes, but the principle of carrying something precise and purposeful isn’t a bad comparison. When you’re running 75 metres of printed material through production and straight onto a city wall, that kind of precision isn’t a bonus feature. It’s the whole job.
What it takes to deliver at this scale
Projects like this sit at an interesting intersection. They’re creative in the truest sense, large-scale public art with real cultural weight, but they’re also logistical and technical challenges that require production capability most companies simply don’t have.
Hollywood Monster operates from a 45,000 sq ft facility in Birmingham, with an equipment roster that’s built for exactly this kind of work. The SwissQprint Kudu and EFI VUTEk M3h handle the print side with the colour accuracy and consistency that work of this profile demands. The Hasler Magna 5-metre conveyor cutter, one of only a handful in the UK, brings that same precision to the finishing stage. It’s a production environment designed to hold quality at scale, which is what you need when a project will be scrutinised by an entire city.
But it’s also the team. Equipment gets you to the door. People get the job done. Hollywood Monster’s installers have worked on everything from retail rollouts and arena graphics to architectural wraps and construction hoarding. A high-profile street mural in the middle of Birmingham, with a crowd and a camera, is another day at the office. A very good day, but the point stands: experience shows.
Why projects like this matter
There’s a version of this story that’s purely about capability: scale, speed, precision, delivery. That version is true, and it’s worth telling. But there’s another layer to this particular project that goes beyond the technical.
Public art at this scale does something for a city. It reclaims space, it creates landmarks, it gives people something to stop and stand in front of. The Peaky Blinders mural isn’t just a tribute to a television series; it’s a celebration of Birmingham’s character, its grit, its capacity to take a story about razor blades and backstreet gambling and turn it into something the whole world recognises. Putting that on a wall, properly and permanently, matters.
Hollywood Monster is a Birmingham business. The team that printed and installed this mural works a few miles from where it’s now hanging. That’s not incidental. It’s the kind of connection that makes a job feel like more than a job.
Phase 2 is done. Birmingham, you’re welcome.
75 metres. 2.5 metres high. Three days from print to install, with half the city watching and absolutely no room for error.
By order of the Peaky Blinders, Hollywood Monster delivered. We weren’t going to argue.
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