News / 31 Jul 2026
Alumni designs public art tribute to Len Goodman
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
BA (Hons) Graphic Design alumnus Adrian Riley, was commissioned by Dartford Borough Council to design a public art tribute to Len Goodman.
Adrian, who graduated in 1990, set up the design studio Electric Angel in 2000 and works across graphic design, branding and public artworks, with work including the Leeds Song Tunnel and Balancing Act, in collaboration with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.
‘A Ten from Len’ pays tribute to dancer and Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman, and finds Adrian drawing inspiration from his parents’ love for ballroom dancing, as well as the imagery from instructional dance booklets.
“I found the instruction books with the footsteps in fascinating and that's immediately what sprung to mind when I read the brief - what if we put those steps at full size on the street so anybody could have a go? That seemed the perfect tribute to Len who had been a dance teacher for much of his life.”
Adrian Riley, BA (Hons) Graphic Design alumnus
Developed in close collaboration with Len’s family, the interactive artwork features dance steps alongside Len’s famous sayings set into the pavement, inviting the public to try out these dance moves for themselves. The design went through many iterations, as Adrian explains “in theory etching into paving is simple because you don't have to worry about the structural side of things, but the big constraint is making a design work on slabs that have a fixed size, and that was the challenge on this project with it being so big.” In order to ensure that the steps flowed properly, each paving stone was measured individually, with sections of the design also printed out so Len’s family could dance it on the street to see if it worked.
‘A Ten from Len’ was unveiled outside the Goodman Dance Academy at an opening event on 1 July, and has drawn coverage from BBC News and ITV News Meridian.
Reflecting on his time at Leeds Arts University, then Jacob Kramer College, Adrian remembers how then course leader Godfrey (Goff) Oddy encouraged him to “think beyond what can be printed on paper or seen on a screen, but how graphic design thinking can be applied anywhere there's a need or desire. That really stuck with me and is at the heart of much of my work today.”