Bringing Art Into Motorsports with Riley Girmann

Getting her start in Motorsports

#1. What was the first moment that you can remember discovering motorsports?

I actually grew up with a kid named Ayrton because his family was super into F1. I just thought it was a really weird name, and I had a hard time pronouncing it. Then as I got older and my husband and his friends got VERY into F1. They would have it on all the time - at home, or whenever we'd go on trips - they'd watch.

That's when I actually was like, "wait, this is actually cool. Maybe I should also get into this". Now, I'm deeply into it.... honestly more than they are. It was 1000% the reason I am where I am now.

It was, 'ok where can I watch a race?' Then it was, 'okay, let me listen to a podcast?' Then I was emailing the podcast to work with them.

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#2. When did you decide that you wanted to work within motorsports?

It was probably when I saw my first race. Not even AT the race... I just watched it on TV. I think it was Miami 2021. From there, I was like, "okay, I'm actually really obsessed with this".

I then started listening to 2 Girls 1 Formula (now, See you on the Internet). I listened to two episodes, and I emailed them and I said, "Hey, let me work for you."

This is what I wanna do. It was instantaneous. Maybe a month after I truly sat down and watched a race.

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Riley's Current Role

#3. What was was the first step you took to graphic design across various projects in motorsports?

Sending an incredibly rude email to Kate and Nicole from See You on the Internet. I wish I was joking.

I said, "Hey, love the podcast. I love that you guys are creating a female-centric space here. Your guys' merch is trash. I would love to design better merch."

I fully sent them this whole email about I'm not trying to be an a**hole. I sent them mockups for the merch they currently had, but a little bit elevated. They emailed back and said, "yeah... you can help us." The rest was history!

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#4. What does a standard day look like for you as someone who does this alongside your full-time role?

I work a remote job from 8AM - 4PM give or take.

Separately from that with my motorsports jobs, specifically an illustration job, I'll meet with the client once every two-ish weeks. I'll just sit down illustrate four hours after work.

I usually do it at the dog park that my dog goes to because they have a bar/coffee shop there too. It's fantastic. It's the best invention ever. I'll basically go after work, work straight through the evening, and take a few calls. I have a lot of jobs, and I like to mix them all up throughout the day.

It's the distinction in the day of "here's what I do to pay the bills" and "here's what I do because I enjoy it."

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‍#5. What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of illustrating motorsports projects?

Rewarding

The most rewarding part is definitely anytime I see someone wearing merch that I've designed. I always go up and say, "sorry, I know this is weird, but I made this t-shirt. Can I take a picture with you?" I'm so weird and nervous about it. Every picture of me with someone wearing merch that I designed, makes me so excited.

I was dying at the St. Pete IndyCar race because I had designed not only the Goodnight Racetrack book for Andy, Josef, and Ashley (Newgarden), but there was merch that I had designed three weeks before for Josef. They got it printed so fast, so I wasn't expecting to see it. I was in the pit lane, someone was wearing it. I said, "Oh my God, it's real. This is Josef NewGarden's merch that I designed!"

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Difficult

This is probably because I'm really bad at, and DO NOT DO THIS.... but getting paid for my design work. I'm miserable about negotiating. That's always the ickiest part about it. I don't like negotiating payment. I much prefer the barter system of "take me to a race" instead.

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#6. What are the top 3 qualities that have helped you succeed?

Perserverance

I've wanted to quit a lot. I've definitely had periods of time where I have gotten "no's" too many times, and it's affecting my brain and my creativity. As much as I hate to say it, it's perseverance. You're going to get a lot of 'no's'. Once someone says yes, that's a really good... huge step forward.

Every no shouldn't really affect you. Just push through!

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'Shoot your best shot'

Have the 'balls' to send an email. People will let you do so much if you ask them earnestly, and you want to help. You have to be willing to send the email that says, "Hey, I'll work for peanuts and truly I will be your servant at whatever thing you need me to be doing".

Don't worry about embarrassment

You have to not get embarrassed easily... especially with content creators, specifically. I tried to look at doing content creation. It's so hard. Content creators do so much stuff that... I'm not an easily embarrassed person, but the concept of speaking all of the time... it's like being chased by bears for me.

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Riley's Advice

#7. If you could go back and change anything about your path to where you are today, what would that be?

The only thing I would say would be getting into it earlier, but also I really got into it like a month after I had even started paying attention to racing. I grew up in Ohio, so I was always around race horses.

So, I've always loved things that go fast. I should have gotten into it earlier than I did. As far as wanting to start working in it after discovering that I loved it, I couldn't really have started any earlier.

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#8. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to follow in your footsteps what would that be?

I've made every mistake in the book in terms of graphic design. I always feel like such a bad graphic designer when I'm like, "yeah, I have worked for free". I'm coming from like a place of privilege where I have a nine to five that pays me enough money that I can afford to do things like that.

So, I wouldn't say that's my advice, per-se, but it is "say yes as much as possible, even if it's something that you're not super, super excited about."

Those are the projects that are going to lead to something that you're super, super excited about.

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Riley's Favorites

#9. What is your favorite race/ event/ moment that you’ve had in your career thus-far?

Oh, this is hard because St. Pete was so amazing... getting to be in the pit lane and getting to do the signing and stuff was really cool.

I also got to go to Las Vegas last year with Kate and Nicole... I thought I was just going to be in like GA and they said, "oh no, you can be on like the VIP terrace with us."

I ate my full body weight in Wagyu steak. I was at the Venetian Viewing Deck and it was amazing. The view of the race was great and there's free food. That was a liability.

Riley Girmann (illustration) with See You on the Internet

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#10. You recently illustrated Goodnight Race Track for Red Racer Books (Andy Amendola) and Josef and Ashley Newgarden. Can you walk me through that process?

It's interesting because with illustrating, and especially with the book, I sent them the sketches for the rough version of what I wanted to do.... Where it's like truly stickman art. It's not giving artist at all. Then they say, "okay, great, go with that." Then you're on your own.

I sent them updates, but it was like a finished page of an update. It wasn't anything more than that. So, to me, that was easier than constantly working with a supervisor. If you do a two week turnaround on a brand, you're in contact with them every few days asking about colors, type, those kind of things.

However, for this, for two months it's me posted up the dog park with my iPad drawing away and not having to talk to anyone. It was a nice!

Obviously I loved talking to Ashley and Andy - do not get me wrong there, but It lets you get into the flow of it a lot easier. It was truly a four to nine after my eight to four.

I loved it. I love drawing. That's always been my true love.

At most, there's like a sentence of text on a page, so it was fun. That was what I liked about working with them was that the spotlight was not truly on me, even though it is something that I was such a huge part of... I think that was a good entry point into it.

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Want to learn more about other creatives across motorsports series? Then check out all of our Fast Lane interviews, or jump right into one of these:

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