The first McLaren crest was designed in 1964 by Michael Turner – famous motorsport artist and close friend of Bruce McLaren – for the fledgling Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Team. It centred on a Kiwi, the national symbol of Bruce’s homeland, New Zealand. In a more refined era, it's less of a corporate identity and more reflects a coat of arms for a group of gallant racing adventurers.

The more dynamic ‘Speedy Kiwi’ was introduced in 1967, once again designed by Michael Turner to emphasise the higher speeds at which Bruce’s cars were racing. It also took on a striking papaya orange colour which familiarly became known as ‘McLaren Orange’. Why orange? Some say to honour a sponsor’s orange livery, while others claim that it was appropriated by the team as the national racing colours of New Zealand. Either way, it certainly made the car stand out! 

Reflecting the sport’s international growth, the ‘Speedy Kiwi’ disappeared to be replaced by the McLaren International logo. It was designed by Raymond Loewy as a gift from sponsor Phillip Morris and evokes a chequered flag. Our main partner wanted the colour on the car to correlate with the colour of their brand but on television their normal shade seemed darker. So, after testing types of red, rocket red exploded onto the car and logo.

As our ambition on the track converged with our nascent road car division, the three chevrons merged into one, and the font became more modern and sophisticated. The logo may have changed but our cars remained as successful as ever.

The revamped logo that first appeared in 1997 featured a streamlined speedmark which bares similarities to the vortices created by our rear wing. It appeared on the top of our cars’ side-pods. They evoke the aggressive markings found on predatory animals and insects. The white wording was also made even more powerful by the black background.

To mark our move to the high-tech surroundings of the McLaren Technology Centre, our marque was refined and updated with a more modern and stylish look. The speedmark with which people now associate McLaren, was retained.

Enter the mono black speedmark. Symbolising ‘one’ McLaren, the logo was reflected across McLaren’s three different businesses and united us as one Group. But that doesn’t mean we had forgotten our racing heritage, as we went full circle with a return to our iconic ‘McLaren Orange’ racing livery.

Our racing soul shines even brighter in the latest evolution; the speedmark has turned papaya to distinguish us as McLaren Racing and a slimmer, modernised font style expresses our agility and speed as racers. While continuity is maintained with the familiar McLaren logo, the refreshed identity future-proofs our brand and optimises it for the digital environment.