“I don’t design cars, I design collectibles.”
– Marek Reichman, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Aston Martin
Aston Martin has evolved its brand philosophy to operate within a rarefied segment of the ultra-luxury market, cleverly focusing on the creation of enduring collectibles. This strategy is validated by an extraordinary 96% retention rate—nearly all cars ever produced remain in existence, cementing their status and increasing their high valuation as heritage products that transcend typical consumer goods to enter the realm of art.
This value is a result of the brand’s unique philosophy: the fusion of luxury and performance, encapsulated by the mantra “Opera to Racetrack”, meaning an Aston Martin is designed to be equally at home outside a formal event as it is achieving peak performance on a circuit. This sentiment extends to the experience itself, illustrated by an exclusive performance programme where clients can drive a pre-prepped Valkyrie LM, offering a luxury-level, turn-up-and-drive track day.
The brand’s appeal to its elite clientele is rooted in ultimate personalisation and bespoke service. The ability to cater to extreme, unique desires—from building a one-of-a-kind vehicle to custom-inlaying real scarab beetle wings into an emblem—is a critical element of the ultra-luxury covenant, demonstrating an obsessive level of detail.
Underpinning this entire ecosystem is an aesthetic philosophy and timeless beauty. Design is guided by a core mantra of beauty, often applying principles of natural proportionality, such as Fibonacci’s sequence, to create shapes that the human brain innately perceives as perfect. This focus ensures an aesthetic that guarantees the cars’ status as enduring icons. This combination of art and desire facilitates the ultimate expression of luxury: the transcendence to art and personality, where a vehicle becomes an extension of the owner. A striking example of this is the customer who viewed his Valkyrie hypercar as such a definitive piece of art that he famously built his living room around it.
The brand’s visual language—the iconic grille, the purposeful side strakes for engine cooling, and the wing badge inspired by the original scarab beetle wings seen at Tutankhamen’s tomb—all carry evocative stories linking necessity, heritage, and timeless aesthetics.
“Our brand has transcended being just an object to becoming someone’s reality, or personality. That’s where a brand really takes on a different perspective, when it becomes a personality for someone.”
