When Jordan Shaw first painted a tractor on the wall of a children's bedroom, never did he think that his creations would be seen and appreciated across every corner of Northern Ireland in 10 years time.
The 28-year-old from Templepatrick is now operating his business, Ace Spray Works, in Whiteabbey village and has been taking the world of street art and design in his stride.
Jordan told Belfast Live how he could have never expected that a career in graffiti was possible when he started out but has been delighted to explore his creativity over the last decade.
He said: "I started in school as a project to do with graffiti on the streets and advertising and the more advertising I found, the more graffiti I found – from that I got a commission to paint a kids bedroom with a tractor and that was the very first thing I did.
"I posted it on Facebook and that was 10 years ago now and since then, I've painted over 400 walls, over 100 shutters and loads of bits and bobs along the way.
"I've always been creative and into art and I thought I was going to go into media studies. This is such a unique job that I never thought this was a pathway you could go down."
The transformation away from the negative connotation that used to be placed graffiti to the appreciation and acceptance of street art over the last ten years has allowed Jordan to follow his passion and explore his talent.
What "started small" with the Co Antrim man operating out of his father's office and mother's garage just continued to snowball and now Jordan's mark can be seen from the likes of the M2 right to Co Fermanagh.
He continued: "I never thought that I would be doing this as a full-time job when I started so being able to turn it into a business has been funky and I've been just taking it all in my stride.
"I went to uni to study Interactive Media - there is no one to teach you how to go down the street art or graffiti road so I just learnt as I went along."
Ace Spray Works has been operating out of its new home in Whiteabbey for nine months and Jordan and his team have been responsible for the transformation of hundreds of gyms, barbers, skateparks and hospitality venues.
"This is our creative hub now and spray painting is just one aspect of it all - we do signwriting, printing, designing and we've done a few business flips where we completely redesign the whole thing so it's gone beyond just spray painting now," he added.
"Phil does all my designing and Jay does all the printing - I paint full-time which is great and they are doing all the applicating and stickering as well.
"It's really nice and really rewarding, especially when I started painting kids bedrooms and seeing the kids reactions when they would walk into the room was really sweet."
Jordan has also been using his creativity to inspire others by giving people the chance to explore street art in ways they may never have gotten to before.
He said: "We hold graffiti workshops with schools and the likes of mental health organisations and it's great to give back to the community. Sometimes I say that Ace stands for 'Art Creating Education' through our workshops.
"There are loads of walls out the back and Whiteabbey is a perfect space because you have walls the whole way up so we want to be able to hold more workshops here - it's for all ages and skill."
Looking to the future, the team hope they can continue to leave a mark on Northern Ireland by breathing new life through their creative abilities.
"I'm always looking for bigger and better walls - I spend so much time painting the same wall and then when it's finished, it's finished but as soon as you paint for someone, someone else will see it and it becomes like a spiderweb of people getting in contact.
"Every job is different so it keeps my work interesting and I can always challenge myself."
