DEVOTED COLLECTOR ADDS RETRO TOUCH TO NASCAR MERCH

BY DUSTIN ALBINO

Nostalgia, it can be a beautiful thing. And for Harris Lue, graphic artist and designer, it’s everything.

Since the age of 2, Harris has been an avid NASCAR fan. When his dad would point to the television back then, Harris could name the most obscure drivers in the field. And from a young age, he also knew he wanted to do something in the visual arts world, specifically in racing.

Harris recalls times in elementary school where he would be distracted by drawing race cars. Originally, he thought he wanted to be an engineer, but that required too much math. While in the eighth grade, he came up with his first logo for what would be his future passion.

After earning a graphic design degree from East Carolina University, Harris took a job at Late Model Restoration – one of the biggest Mustang aftermarket companies in the United States – in Waco, Texas. He loves cars, specifically Mustangs, and owns two himself.

While Harris was in Texas for one year, he visited Texas Motor Speedway to see Jeff Gordon’s final race at the 1.5-mile track. Shortly after, one of his former classmates told him about a position that opened at NASCAR. It would allow him to get his big break in the racing world.

“A lot of the things you see now, even some of the stuff that’s been released in the past couple of (months), has elements and designs that I worked on (at NASCAR) in 2018 or 2019,” Harris said. “They are just now surfacing and coming to light.

“The actual vintage merch is getting ridiculous. The prices are going way up and are super-hot right now. Being able to replicate that style in a new way with new clothes that look authentic has been a lot of the fun of what we’ve been able to do.”

Harris spent a few years at NASCAR before landing a job with Stewart-Haas Racing. There, he would design many of the elements for the race team, including hero cards, social-media, and race day designs. He was checking off bucket list item after bucket list item, including a trip to work the 2022 Daytona 500.

Simultaneously Harris was working on freelance projects as LUE Creative, where he now serves as co-owner with his girlfriend and business partner, Emily Butler. Quickly, Harris realized he was short on time, so just over a year ago he and Emily began to focus solely on LUE Creative and growing their business together. LUE Creative is a full-service visual agency that works with clients in and out of racing with over 15 years of combined experience in the motorsports world.

Harris’ style is retro. He’s been a devoted retro NASCAR T-shirt collector since 2015. The first two T-shirts he purchased were of Mark Martin, ahead of the aforementioned Texas race. He then bought a few Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan retro pieces, because those were among his favorite drivers as a kid.

“We’re in a nostalgic era,” Lue noted. “The switch to digital and – things going away from being tangible. I’m a collector and huge into things that you can touch and put on a shelf, that you can wear. You can’t get that connection with a digital item. You don’t have the texture, touch or feel. Things that were made yesterday that someone might have had or wanted but didn’t have the chance to get. Maybe they lost it, sold it, threw it away, but now there’s a huge desire to get that item back and recapture that feeling.