McLaren x Links of London

Brand collaborations tend to be exciting, especially when the stars align and two of your favorite brands combine creative forces. At other times collaborations may introduce you to new artists or brands that you have never heard of (or never considered purchasing). Perhaps the most popular and visible collaborations are the Mass Market x High End collaborations, which is another topic of discussion altogether.

The McLaren x Links of London collaboration which was just announced in a press release cannot really be compared to those type of collaborations. From the photos I have seen, the jewelry designs take their “inspiration” from various design elements of F1 (i.e. car parts) and materials (i.e. CARBON FIBER). For all you McLaren fans, fear not… some items come visibly branded with the McLaren logo so you may profess your McLaren love in other ways besides Rocket Red. 😉

How about some photos?

Here is the photo from the official McLaren press release online:

Is this photo supposed to excite me? Maybe I don’t “get it” because I’m not a man. But this bracelet also reminds me of a cheap coil bike lock:

Not exactly cool, nor cutting edge eh? Haha.

The following photos are from the official Links of London blog:

How about a set of McLaren x Links of London cuff links? I mean… look at that carbon fiber… 😛

To be honest at first glance, I thought these cuff links were actually ear plugs. Yikes. I guess that’s because I live in a place where tons of hipsters sport ear plugs. -____-;;; But McLaren and Links of London probably would not put out such a product, right?

There is also a cuff available… also with carbon fiber:

It’s all right… a little plain (perfect for men perhaps?). But does it look a little too “Oh HEYYY I randomly ripped a part off the car and wore it on my wrist?” I don’t know. The design is streamlined and minimal, which is appealing.

A “dog tag” was also made with.. yes… you guessed it… carbon fiber:

I don’t know how I feel about this one either. My initial reaction was “Do guys even wear dog tags anymore?” Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Readers please feel free to enlighten me on this topic. 😉

When I think of Links of London, their silver jewelry (primarily the charm bracelet) comes to mind. I wonder what type of metal will be used for this jewelry. Perhaps there will be different options at different price points (i.e. silver, white gold, platinum). However in the spirit of the McLaren collaboration, some other metals could also be used… titanium perhaps? There is no further information available at this time, so we’ll just have to see.

Would any of you McLaren lovers consider buying jewelry from this collaboration? Do tell. 🙂

Button beats his teammate …

No, no. I’m not talking about the F1 Championship points. As on thepitwalk, it’s something else entirely!

Well, I enjoy McLaren’s Top Model Challenges very much… in fact… I might be the only person to have ever heard of it. Perhaps some of my blog readers remember what this is too (hint: top model tag). For those who are confused, here is a short explanation: Hamilton is a photogenic driver, often posing quite dramatically (even bordering on the EMO side) in front of the Vodafone logo. Granted, most of Hamilton’s posing in the garage is not intentional… but it’s more fun to turn it into an episode of Top Model with Button as Hamilton’s direct competition. 😛

Apparently Button has not only beaten his Top Model teammate Hamilton, but a slew of other Britain’s finest men. Button was voted “Best Looking Man” in a women’s survey. For further details see the original article here

Interesting. I admit Hamilton’s New Look is not doing him any favors this year. His status as the Top Model of McLaren may be in danger. That facial hair stripe has definitely got to go:

Perhaps this win has Button confused as well?

So tell me dear readers. Do you agree with those 1500 women in the survey? Is Button indeed the best looking man in Britain? I think not… but apparently many think otherwise. 😉

McLaren’s New Sponsor?

By now I am sure that everyone is well aware of McLaren’s race suit “design” competition. I use the term “design” loosely because it seems that the most horrible designs make it into production. Poor Lewis and Jenson. The “special” edition racing suit seen in Barcelona was particularly bad. Did anyone else think that the drivers looked like they had bananas for arms?

Perhaps McLaren had a one-time sponsorship deal with Chiquita banana? -_-;;;

Remember, if you want to win the McLaren contest and have your design produced, it seems like the uglier and therefore more eye-catching, the better! x_X

Cartoon Heroes

A long long time ago I ran a contest I called The Sad Nando Face Contest. Readers of the blog (or twitter followers) could submit a photo of themselves making the world famouse Sad Nando Face. But since I knew that some people would not want to post questionably attractive photos of themselves, submitting photos of various drivers/team principals/other F1 staff was also acceptable.

The winner of the contest was @jonnywilde’s daughter and the prize he won was an illustration done by me. Since he is a McLaren lurver, he requested an illustration featuring either of the McLaren drivers. oooooh my. What a tall order! I normally draw feminine looking men. After much thought, I decided to draw Jenson and Jessica since I recalled that @jonnywilde was also a fan of Jessica.

I finally posted the drawing to @jonnywilde in January and it took a whopping 24 days to get to him. ~_~;;; And since he has finally received the prize, I can finally share the illustration with the rest of you!

Here it is… hope you all like it. Unfortunately the scan does not capture all of the details and subtlety of the shading, but here it is :

P.S. Click to enlarge
P.P.S. No, I did not trace a photo of the helmet. It was done completely freehand and it was a pain 😛

Information for art nerds:
– Illustration done on smooth vellum bristol with Prismacolor color pencils, gouache, discontinued Letraset TRIA markers, and Copic markers.

Lewis Experiments with Facial Hair… Again.

Last year, Lewis grew an “interesting” bit of facial hair. In case you don’t remember what it looked like, I will refresh your memory:

image: motorsport.com

It wasn’t a very good look, and he shaved it off after awhile (thank God).

However it seems that Lewis is once again toying with facial hair. It’s similar to what he tried in 2010… overall the face is clean but now there is a little subtle strip along his jawline now:

image: nextgen-auto

I’m not really sure what to think here. I still think that Lewis is “rebelling” against McLaren’s corporate image. I’m sure that growing a full beard would totally rock the boat at McLaren. But this sort of half-assed facial hair growing is a little annoying too. Perhaps I’m of the mindset “Go big or go home”…

What do the readers think? Maybe I’m out of touch on this one and it’s just so cool that I don’t get it?

Paper Gangster?

heh. Unfortunately, that’s the first thing to come to mind when viewing this photo. The ring and earrings are just adding to the overall effect.

I suppose I shouldn’t be so judgemental, after all this pose could just be Lewis saying “Hey check out my ride the McLaren updates this weekend!”

Or not.