Mid-Senior Motion Designer

Job description

At McLaren, our mission is to set the standard for high performance in sport. Everyone, in every part of the team, has a role to play. So if you want to test your ideas with the world watching… And measure your progress in milliseconds… And play your part in racing history… You belong here. High performance starts with you.

Purpose of the role:

We are seeking a talented and experienced Midweight or Senior Motion Designer to join the ranks and take that next step in their creative career. As a mid-senior Motion Designer at McLaren, you’ll be at the heart of a fast-paced, creative team, where you’ll produce exceptional motion graphics that captivate audiences and drive the McLaren Racing brand forward.

You’ll work with a range of digital platforms, creating bold and engaging visuals for social media, web, and mobile apps, translating design briefs into sleek, high-quality graphics that reflect McLaren’s brand aesthetic.

This is a role for a visionary with outstanding design instincts who thrives in a collaborative team environment. You’ll deliver top-tier conceptual work with precision and manage budgets and deadlines without compromising on creativity.

Applying McLaren’s brand principles to your work, ensuring that best-in-class design is seamlessly integrated across all digital touchpoints.

• Craft compelling, on-brand creative solutions that span diverse formats, from dynamic motion graphics and eye-catching brand campaigns to engaging social media visuals, sleek websites, striking product graphics, and captivating photography.

• Championing collaboration by working with talented teams across the studio and Social Digital departments, ensuring every project thrives through shared creativity and aligned vision.

• Amplify the value of McLaren and its partners by delivering exceptional, timely creative that not only meets expectations but elevates brand experiences and resonates with audiences.

Role Dimensions:

To thrive in this role, you’ll need to meet critical deadlines while keeping to budget considerations. Stay ahead of the curve by keeping up with the latest design trends and production techniques, continually bringing fresh, bold ideas into our Brand Creative studio. We value collaboration, so we’re excited for you to share your expertise and inspire our junior team members along the way.

Your work will embody our brand principles and values, ensuring that best-in-class design is applied to our integrated digital and traditional media, as well as our Racing livery collateral.

This role reports directly to the Head of Digital Creative.

Principle accountabilities:

Concept (20%)

• Ability to interpret stakeholder briefs and respond with creative concepts of the highest standard, using our brand standards and wider best practice to inform your process and thinking.

• The creation of storyboards – Strong sense of timing, pacing, and visual storytelling.

• Participate in brainstorming sessions to share new design perspectives and ideas.

Design (40%)

• Work with designers to understand the project scope and objectives.

• Prepare conceptual layouts for the motion graphic project.

• Keeping abreast of advancements in animation as well as new technologies and techniques, contemporary trends in production design and popular music to deliver cutting edge work.

• To deliver outstanding, cross-media creative to briefs that contribute to the ongoing development of our brand and touchpoints.

Production (30%)

• Create highly engaging complex animations for a diverse array of media, including smartphones, tablets and the web.

• Encoding, converting and editing videos and adding effects/elements to enhance motion graphics.

• Assist in selecting appropriate audio, graphic and animation styles for the project. Familiarity with sound design and basic audio editing.

Stakeholder (10%)

• Stakeholder Management – being able to interpret briefs and projects from stakeholders and line managers. To prioritise tasks, consider budget constraints and critical timelines. Managing stakeholder requirements efficiently and proactively through to project fulfilment.

• Organisation and Collaboration – excellent time-management skills ensuring timely delivery against critical paths throughout the year. Being organised, contributing to the planning and output of the studio. Working with fellow Brand & Creative team members. Reporting to, and collaborating with, our Creative Director.

• Ensure deadlines and project timelines are met.

• Communication – keeping the Creative Director, Head of Digital Creative and immediate team informed of design-related issues.

• Provide accurate time estimates for each part of the process.

Note – All of the above relates to work throughout McLaren Racing: F1, FE, Indy Car and eSports.

Job requirements

Knowledge Skills and Experience:

• Conceptualise motion design ideas through style frames, storyboards, and animatics to communicate your vision to internal teams and clients.

• Collaborate with the creative, strategy, and social teams to develop and execute motion design elements that meet project objectives and timelines.

• Actively participate in brainstorming sessions, contributing innovative ideas for motion design strategies and creative approaches.

• Examples of work demonstrating experience as a mid-senior motion designer either for an agency or brand.

• Ability to clearly articulate and present creative concepts in response to briefs.

• Ability to supervise, inform and manage junior motion graphic designers, provide constructive feedback and nurture new talent.

• Stay informed about the latest industry trends, tools, and technologies to introduce fresh and cutting-edge practices into the team.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with studio creatives.

Requirements :

• A minimum 5 years of professional experience as a motion designer.

• Strong portfolio showcasing a wide range of motion design projects.

• In-depth knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite (particularly motion design-related software ie After Effects and Photoshop).

• Additional secondary software knowledge a plus: Cinema 4D, Renderer – Redshift.

• Excellent time keeping and the ability to work under your own direction.

What can McLaren offer?

We constantly strive to be better tomorrow than we are today. Our ambition is to be the most pioneering and exhilarating racing team in the world, and our collective task is to set the standards for high performance in sport. We show up every day with energy and enthusiasm, ready to play our part.

We encourage and support diversity, equity and inclusion. We will actively promote a culture that values difference and eliminates discrimination in our workplace.

McLaren Racing is based at the iconic McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) near Woking. Here at McLaren, we offer hybrid working with 3 days a week based in the MTC.

Our state of the art, sustainable campus offers many facilities including a gym, restaurant and indoor and outdoor break-out areas, as well as direct access to park and common land. The MTC is connected to Woking mainline station via regular shuttle buses, from which London Waterloo is a 30 minute train ride.