On luxury and velocity, painting on velvet, and using augmented reality to turn a still painting into cinematic motion for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team.
“Traditional art can capture a moment. Augmented reality let me explore what happened before it, what followed it, and what might exist beneath the surface.”
Hayden Bone is an Australian contemporary artist working across sport, luxury, culture and collectible art, and the first officially licensed artist in Arsenal Football Club’s history. His work blends fine art, pop art and street-art influences with spray paint, palette knives and texture, repositioning recognisable cultural subjects within a contemporary fine-art setting.
For his AMR Velvet Art Collection, hand-painted on velvet, Hayden brought that language to the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team. The originals were exhibited during the British Grand Prix within the team’s Paddock Club and The Lawn hospitality environments, and each piece is enhanced with augmented reality through Artivive, so a still painting turns cinematic: the car accelerates and the track forms. We sat down with Hayden to talk luxury, speed, and why the artwork always comes first.
The connection came through working with Arsenal Football Club. Their Commercial Director had previously worked closely with AMR and recommended that we connect. From there, I developed several concepts exploring how my style could interpret the team’s identity, heritage and performance. Fortunately, they connected with the direction, and the collaboration formed.
The aim was to create something beyond traditional motorsport memorabilia: a contemporary fine-art collection that captures the speed, precision and luxury associated with Aston Martin. The velvet collection was released as part of a wider campaign involving the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team, BOSS and PUMA, so it was a real privilege to contribute to a project alongside brands of that calibre.
Thank you! The visual direction came from the contrast between luxury and speed. Aston Martin represents refinement, heritage and craftsmanship, while Formula One is built around aggression, technology and movement. I wanted the artworks to sit within that tension.
The racing green, metallic elements, driver numbers, typography and track-inspired elements all played a role, but texture was equally important. The originals are all created on velvet, which changes with the light and adds a sense of depth and luxury. Emotionally, I wanted to capture anticipation, acceleration and the narrow space between control and risk.
Formula One is naturally associated with movement, speed, sound and technology, so augmented reality felt like a very natural extension of the work. The physical painting always had to stand on its own. I never wanted the technology to feel like a gimmick or compensate for the artwork.
But AR allowed me to reveal the movement already suggested within the composition. The car could accelerate, track markings could form and the artwork could shift from a static image into a more cinematic experience. Traditional art can capture a moment. AR allowed me to explore what happened before it, what followed it and what might exist beneath the surface.
There was a significant amount of background research into the team, the car, the drivers, the iconography and the wider Aston Martin identity. I then developed a series of concepts and compositions before moving into the physical painting stage. My process usually begins with digital schematics, where I plan how the artwork will be constructed and which techniques will best suit it, whether that is palette knife, brushwork, airbrush or a combination of methods.
Velvet is particularly challenging to work with. Unlike canvas, mistakes can’t be painted over or repaired, which means every stage requires a lot of control and focus. Once the painting was complete, the AR experience was designed around the existing composition. The movement, track lines and final position of the car all had to align closely with the physical artwork. The final stage involved testing the image recognition, animation and looping until the digital layer felt fully integrated with the painting.
The reaction has been extremely positive, because many people do not expect a physical painting to transform in that way. Collectors are often drawn first to the texture and material quality, while Formula One fans connect with the car, driver or team identity. The AR experience brings those two audiences together.
The artworks were displayed during the British Grand Prix within the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team’s Paddock Club and The Lawn hospitality environments, which made the experience particularly memorable. The most rewarding reaction is usually the moment someone sees the work move for the first time, steps closer and immediately wants to show another person.
Protect your artistic identity. A strong brand collaboration should bring together two distinctive voices rather than reduce the artist to simply reproducing logos or marketing material. Understand the brand, its audience and its objectives, but also be clear about what makes your own work valuable and recognisable.
From a business perspective, artists should understand intellectual property, usage rights, approvals, editions, production costs and commercial expectations before starting. With AR, begin with the artwork and the story. Technology should deepen the experience, not become the reason for it.
I see AR becoming an increasingly important part of my practice, particularly where a subject contains movement, narrative or transformation. The physical artwork provides texture, permanence and collectibility, while the digital layer can introduce motion, sound and deeper storytelling.
My original interest in AR extended beyond creating entertaining or visually engaging content. I was also interested in its educational potential and in allowing the viewer to interact with an artwork, trigger different elements and uncover multiple stories depending on how they engage with it. I am currently developing several ideas around that concept.
AR also creates a genuine commercial opportunity through the ability to activate or deactivate experiences according to specific times and locations. This opens the door to concepts such as digital “golden tickets,” exclusive content, location-based rewards and limited-time experiences. I believe this could be particularly powerful for brands with large global fan bases, allowing them to create meaningful interaction, reward engagement and connect a physical artwork or product with a wider campaign.
Definitely a positive feeling, I hope. I would like people to connect with the work immediately and feel engaged by it on a sensory level. I want them to see and feel the luxury of the surface and its refinement, while also experiencing the power, speed and energy associated with Formula One and Aston Martin.
Then, when the AR activates, I hope it creates a genuine moment of surprise and leaves them with a stronger sense of excitement, curiosity and connection to the artwork.
This project brought together many areas I am passionate about: contemporary art, sport, luxury, technology and storytelling. It also reinforced my belief that sport can be treated as meaningful cultural subject matter rather than simply memorabilia, and that fine art can live within it.
I believe artists should be ambitious about where their work can exist and who it can reach. Fine art can be culturally meaningful, emotionally engaging and commercially successful at the same time. I am grateful to the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team for the trust involved in allowing me to interpret their identity, and to Artivive for helping extend the physical artworks into a more immersive experience.
Hayden Bone’s Aston Martin collection is a reminder that fine art can live inside sport, luxury and technology at once — and that augmented reality, used with intent, deepens a story rather than decorating it. The painting stands on its own; the digital layer reveals the movement that was always there.
Explore the AMR Velvet Art Collection at gallery8vipcollection.com.
Artworks by Hayden Bone Studio. Brought to life in augmented reality with Artivive.
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