iRacing Staff Member Profile: Graphic Designer Alex Patzke
August 8th, 2024 by Justin Melillo
For this week of the iRacing Staff Member highlight series, we’ve got another one of the folks behind all of the incredible art and graphics around the many facets of the iRacing service. One of the newest members of the iRacing Marketing team, Alex Patzke’s artistic work has already spread far and wide across the library of iRacing products. Here’s more about one of iRacing’s Graphic Designers, Alex Patzke.
- Who are you, and what is your job title at iRacing?
My name is Alex Patzke, and I’m one of the Graphic Designers here at iRacing.
- How long have you been working at iRacing?
I’m coming up fast on one year now. I started working at iRacing in January of 2024.
- What got you interested in working for iRacing?
I’ve always had a passion for video games, and since 2019, sim racing. Once I got hooked on iRacing, it was a dream of mine to work for the company.
Going from a member to an employee will always be special for me, as it was a passion of mine before I even started my career here.
- What does your job entail, from daily tasks to larger projects?
Making a lot of graphics together with Larry Fulcher! We’ve made a lot of those iRacing Special Event posters, as well as in-game items for the iRacing simulation, usually whatever is needed for new builds.
Some of those tasks include shooting still assets for promotional materials, and also creating and updating track maps.
I was also able to work on many of the assets for ExoCross before its release.
There’s more behind the scenes stuff as well, but that’s a typical day-to-day.
A couple of the posters that Alex worked on this year
- Are there any projects you’ve worked on that stand out above any others? Something you are proud of?
When I first started, the iRacing Weather System was included in the next release. Being able to work on assets for wet weather racing, and seeing how much work went into it before its release was very cool. It’s also been fun to work on assets for ExoCross, and kind of take the lead on that.
- Are there any future projects that you can’t wait to jump on?
I honestly get excited for all the content that we get to produce, but the realistic answer is that I can’t wait to get to making assets for each new build.
Being able to see the new content as it becomes ready for public release will always be cool to me, and it makes it even more exciting when it finally releases to the public.
- What are some of your favorite car and track combinations on iRacing to participate in?
You will almost always find me in open-wheel downforce cars.
Right now, I’ve been grinding the Super Formula Lights as the racing has been very good and close.
I am trying to get into GT racing more, but its a completely different discipline which takes a lot of time to learn.
As for my favorite tracks, I love the Hungaroring, especially when racing in high downforce cars. It’s like a big go-kart track!
- Are there any other video games, racing or not, that you enjoy playing currently?
I like playing a lot of creative games, such as Satisfactory, and I also enjoy some First Person Shooters from time to time.
However, those that know me are aware that I can become very competitive in those FPS games.
- Outside of iRacing, what other hobbies do you enjoy?
I like to do photography on the side when I can, but I also enjoy streaming and making content on YouTube.
- What are some of your goals you hope to achieve, either at work or outside of it?
One of my goals is to improve and learn even more about graphic design, and to always make something better than my last piece. I also love doing video editing and voice overs, so maybe helping with that when it’s needed would be another cool thing to do.
One goal outside of work is to go to a Formula 1 race at Circuit of the Americas as a licensed photographer, but even going as a fan would be great too.
- Anything else we should know about you?
An interesting fact about me is that I was a full-time YouTuber from 2012 to 2016.
During that time, I made houses and content for people on Minecraft.
I have some other channels that I’ve made over the years as well, but eventually, I want to start up a sim racing channel.
I’m also a football/soccer fan, and love watching the Premiere League when I can.
I’ll let you all guess on which team I support, to avoid any backlash for supporting the wrong team.
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About Justin Melillo
Justin Melillo is iRacing's Marketing and Communications Specialist. Justin is a National Motorsports Press Association award recipient in both Race Coverage Writing and eSports Writing, writing for Traxion.GG and The Racing Experts. You can find Justin's posts on X/Twitter at @justinmelillo.