Customer Experience Design for McLaren
Born on a racetrack, McLaren is a pioneering, spirit-driven, supercar company that exudes excitement and modern luxury. Known for pushing the limits of engineering, their products and experiences are human-focused, emotionally charged, and designed to be breathtaking.
I’ve worked with McLaren Automotive and Pure McLaren, its racing-focused event division, to design experiences, collateral, and touchpoints for events and dealerships in North America.
Below are a few of the projects I was proud to be part of.
Launching the artura in Chicago
art direction & Design
The Artura was McLaren’s first model with a hybrid-engine. The launch was highly-anticipated as the production of the vehicle was notoriously delayed, more than 18 months, after the design was revealed. It meant the world-wide events hosted for the launch needed to be special, intimate, and embody the company’s spirit, showing the guests that the delay was well worth the wait.
Historic McLaren cars, both race cars and road models, were on display, adding a level of emotional depth to the event, tying the new model to a lineage of engineering excellence, going back to namesake, Bruce McLaren. The event was hosted by Nicolas Brown, President of McLaren, The Americas, and featured guests with deep ties to the brand, and interactive experiences.
A signature Aperol-based cocktail was also created so even the drinks looked on-brand.
I designed projected backdrops for the main event, printed informational signs that were hung above the historic cars on display, and window banners displaying a historic McLaren logo which were used to black-out the room, allowing for greater control over the environment. Additional banners, interactive table tents, cocktail menus, and swag bag were also produced for the event.
monterey car week - Digital invitation & Brochure
Art direction & Publication Design
Monterey Car Week is one of the most-premier automobile events in the world. Set in Monterey, California along one of the most picturesque highways in the United States, McLaren takes advantage of the breathtaking location by hosting several events in the area for its customers, from a company dinner hosted by top executives to driving experiences on closed roads. In the past, McLaren sent out invitations and information via email largely because the details weren’t solidified until after the invitations went out. But in 2024, for their 60th Anniversary, they wanted to expand the depth of the information provided into a multi-page brochure to appeal to its well-heeled clients.
Because I have extensive experience in publication design I was tasked with overseeing the project which ended up being successful enough that McLaren began to take the same approach for other events like their Circuit of the America’s (Austin, TX) Track and Amelia Island Concours Week experiences among others.
Pebble Beach Owner’s Rally - memento
art direction
McLaren owner’s from all over the world converge on Southern California for its annual Pebble Beach Rally, one of its events during Monterey Car Week. One of the quirks of the rally is they stop at an In-N-Out along the route. In 2023 we commemorated the rally with a t-shirt for the participants. Illustration by Katie Carey.
McLaren Americas HQ Experience concepts
McLaren opened a new headquarters just north of Dallas in 2022. Besides housing its business operations for the Americas it was also built to showcase the McLaren brand. These were proactive conceptual experiences for their visitors—1. a “track tour” of the lab-like facilities; 2. a company store with a sound booth to demo partner Bowers & Wilkins speakers that; 3. plays historic McLaren races and events, controlled by era-specific switches and buttons; and 4. a display for a 570S Spider that was wrecked during a test drive by Car and Driver magazine. The car rolled twice at 78 mph and no one hurt, both the driver and passenger simply walked away. A testament to the technological superiority of McLaren’s carbon-fiber tubs.
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Keep warm gift for Artura depositors
The launch of McLaren’s Artura was notoriously delayed for a myriad of reasons. It was a new type of car for the company and was designed with all-new components not shared with any other models. Engineering hiccups, supply shortages, and at least one prototype fire pushed the first deliveries back an additional nine months so we created unique gifts to keep Artura depositors happy.
Owing both to a slim budget and the knowledge that well-heeled McLaren owners can buy most anything they want, we built an emotional experience for the customer by gifting them a custom speedforms, those car-shaped objects found in dealerships to show paint colors. Each speedform was painted with the customer’s custom color, evoking memories of the original excitement of buying a McLaren in the first place. It was an emotionally charged gift that couldn’t simply be purchased somewhere and was relatively inexpensive to make.
The forms were provided by McLaren; I designed the gift box below. The interior of the box says, “McLARENS ARE HAND-BUILT IN WOKING, ENGLAND TO YOUR EXACT SPECIFICATIONS” and each form was accompanied by a letter from the President of McLaren, Americas.
