Design and Brand Direction

McDonald’s.com

Role: Head of Art for Digital at Leo Burnett London

A fresh and flavourful digital makeover for Maccers in the UK

The briefCreate a refreshed, user-friendly web experience for one of the world’s most iconic retail brands — making it faster, smarter and more engaging for millions of customers.

Bringing McDonald’s values to the screenBefore McDelivery became the norm, the UK website served as the digital front door to McDonald’s. It needed to do more than look good — it had to reflect the values of a modern restaurant. From sustainability and food sourcing to innovation and ethics, the site was built to inform and educate, while making the food look every bit as irresistible as it tastes.

Photographing the foodWith much of the site built around photographic components paired with HTML text overlays, clear guidance was essential to ensure strong visual impact and message clarity. Capturing the food in the most appealing way — while maintaining usability and consistency — was key. I authored the Digital Photographic Guidelines to accompany the Web Styleguide and support teams in designing and building these components effectively.

Practical tools for consistent, flexible contentI created a detailed brief for third-party agencies, providing clear guidance for producing web-ready photography — with direction that worked for both legacy assets and future shoots. To support this, a suite of layered Photoshop templates was delivered, allowing teams to easily generate consistent assets with flexible options for angles, backgrounds, colours, and formats.

“Russell transformed our web experience, managing to navigate technical limitations, accessibility requirements and brand guidelines to create a remarkable and elegant digital style”

Cath Baillie
Senior Digital Business Manager
McDonald's

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