In the late 1980s two city art students set out to tell the world that Glasgow's miles better using the most famous urban canvas of them all.
Prior to the Berlin Wall's historic fall in November 1989, vast stretches of the western side of the notorious Cold War divide were almost entirely covered in graffiti, with people from all over the world helping to create a colourful patchwork of different designs that were often politically-charged.
Added rather unexpectedly to this vibrant mix within metres of an East German watchtower at Checkpoint Charlie was Glasgow City Council's 'Mr Happy' mascot, the ever-joyous face of the Glasgow's Miles Better campaign.
READ MORE: Looking back at the time when Glasgow was 'Miles Better'
It was hand-painted on to the Berlin Wall on a swelteringly hot May day in 1987, by two young Glasgow School of Art students, Norman 'Norry' Shewan and Mike Mackiggan, who were visiting the German capital on a field trip.
Accompanying Mr Happy was the campaign's famous slogan, the first names of the two artists, the date it was painted, and a cheeky message ("GTF yahoo!").
The pair's bold-as-brass tribute to Glasgow made headlines back home in Scotland, with the press coverage spurring some locals to make the trip over to Berlin and see it for themselves.
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Glasgow Live managed to track down Mike Mackiggan to find out the story behind his and Norry's Berlin Wall exploits all those decades ago.
"We'd been studying town planning at the art school and that was our fourth year field trip," recalled Mike, 56, who now lives in New Zealand.
"Berlin was a very interesting place to visit and still separated at that time. We had a day off where we were just free to do whatever we wanted, so Norry and I decided that we’d like to paint on the Berlin Wall."
Keen to paint something suitably large and eye-catching that would also serve as a tribute to their hometown, Mike and Norry opted for the Glasgow's Miles Better slogan. The now iconic campaign had been launched in June 1983 by Lord Provost Michael Kelly in a bid to boost the city's rather battered public image.
Brushes in hand, they managed to complete the mural from memory in about three hours in the blistering Berlin sunshine.
Mike continued: "We chose the Glasgow’s Miles Better logo, just as a gesture, and as a bit of a rebellious thing to do. It was all done from memory - no cell phones or Google Images in those days.
“We did it in the middle of the day and it was blazing hot as well - we suffered for our art!”
While Mike struggles to remember the precise location of the mural, he says the pair picked a spot within close proximity of an East German watchtower, simply so that it would look good in photographs.
With the watchtower being close by, there was also a bit of danger involved in painting Mr Happy, Mike admits.
He explained: "We chose a spot that was pretty close to one of the watchtowers, so that if you took a photo from an oblique angle you could see the Glasgow’s Miles Better mural with the watchtower in the background. I also had the line about the Wall from David Bowie’s Heroes in my head; I really loved that song at the time.
"There was a bit of risk in doing it. Apparently the Wall and the five metres beyond it was actually East German territory and if you were painting on the Wall then you were painting on East German property. We could’ve been arrested for it."
Mike added: "We got finished relatively early in the day, so we did manage to catch up with the other students and get our quota of good German beer down as well.
"I'm really proud of it [the mural], I'd definitely say it's been one of my career highlights!"
The removal of the Berlin Wall began on November 9, 1989. Dozens of graffiti-covered panels from the wall were subsequently sold at auction for as much as £6,000 per square yard with the money raised going towards new hospitals in East Germany.
It's unknown whether or not Mike and Norry's 'Mr Happy' was among the panels that was saved.
Article originally published in October 2022.
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