A chat with Joseph Hales: by Emmy Gibbons

Joseph Hales has made his own way into motorsports, and now finds himself working with a driver who’s making his way through top level racing - Formula E star, Taylor Barnard.

Joseph is running JH Media Management, aimed at helping teams and drivers handle their social media.

Link: https://www.jhmediamanagement.com

How did you get into motorsport media?

When I left school I was always interested in graphic design, so I always wanted to go into graphic design and I kind of thought let’s just do it.

I started volunteering my work for racing drivers because I have grown up with motorsport and watched Formula 1 from a really young age, I offered my work to drivers and then it has progressed from there. I have been very fortunate enough to work with some big names. It is something I have always been passionate about and thought I always enjoyed doing graphic design, always loved motorsport so to be able to combine the two it just works really well. Through graphic design and making connections with drivers I have been able to delve into the management side of things. It has been crazy but that is how it started, just a passion and making it happen, putting myself out there and seeing where it led.

Was there anyone in particular who inspired you to pursue this career?

I wouldn’t say any person in particular, when I was younger I would scroll through social media and see these really cool graphics people had made. I just thought to myself I would love to be able to do that. I am completely self taught in what I do, I didn’t study anything creative at school, I was very academic but I just chased my passion after I left school. So it just started with me seeing things on social media and thinking I would love to do that and I have just made it happen. 

Did you have any qualifications?

Honestly I have absolutely none, I joke about it quite often like I genuinely am winging it, it’s all so new to me. It started off as just a hobby and now I am fortunate enough to be doing it a lot more. 

What is your dream team or driver to work with?

I would love to stick with Taylor. Taylor at the minute is amazing and I am very fortunate enough to be working with him. With what he is doing at the minute with Formula E and Mclaren we don’t know what opportunities could open up in the future for him, I think his sights are set on Formula 1 and that’s his dream. I think Taylor had the opportunities to become a multi Formula E World Champion if he wanted to and I’m sure he would have loads of options down the line as well. I am very happy with what I have at the minute, so I think Taylor is the dream driver to work with. I’m not sure about any other drivers, I’ve never really thought about it but it would be amazing to work for someone in Formula 1 but we’ll see how it goes.

What led you to working with McLaren?

Beginning of January 2024 Taylor was under a management company and I just volunteered my work for the graphics, so I approached the company saying I am graphic designer, I would love to get my work out there, do you have any drivers I could do the graphics for this year. They said that would be great and would love to get you on board so I was given Taylor to work with. My first graphic for him was when he was doing Formula Regional Middle East, then he progressed into Formula 2 and did half of the season and I have stuck with him since. Before his Mclaren announcement he gave me a message and asked how I would feel about taking on the social media side of things and running his account as well as the graphics.

That wasn't something I was planning, it just happened, I was always on the graphics and hadn't thought about the media management side and then Taylor asked how I would feel about giving it a go. It’s been more working with Tyalor. Mclaren have been great and I have had the opportunity to work alongside McLaren, I am in communication with them a lot especially across branding, everything I do graphics wise I send off to the McLaren branding team.

Because I myself am not employed by McLaren and am not affiliated with the team, it purely is I am with Taylor and have had the opportunity to work alongside Mclaren to run the social media. It has been a really positive experience to work alongside a team and see how they operate. 

What type of camera do you have?

I have just gotten myself a camera because with the management side I would love to add content creation into it. I have never used a camera before but I am going out to Monaco with Taylor, so it will be my first time using it. I bought a Sony A74, I thought if I want to get into it I want a camera that’s good for photos and video, it gives me that flexibility. I am looking for a lens but camera equipment is very expensive, this set up I’m going to end up with will be about £5000, so it’s a big investment and a big risk but I think if you really believe in yourself that much I’m hoping at some point the camera will pay itself off with what I can use it for. It's really exciting I can’t wait to get started with that, it’s a bit daunting because I have never done it before and I am going along to race weekends in the paddock and being trackside with very experienced people and I’m going to be rocking up with no experience at all with a camera and seeing where it goes.

What editing software do you use?

I am mainly based on photoshop, I work a lot within the Adobe creative suite. I got photoshop about a year and a half ago so I am still learning. With photoshop you're always learning, it was only the other day I found a quicker way of doing something. It's one of them where you are constantly learning new things and finding ways of utilising your time and maximising your work. Photoshop is my go to, where I do a lot of work and where I spend a lot of my life. I stay within Adobe so with the photography I will switch to lightroom and probably premier pro when I edit the videos. Just keeping it consistent with Adobe. 

Did you face any challenges when starting in motorsport social media?

100%, I am now it's such a competitive environment. I have been very fortunate with being able to run Taylor’s social media and ever since August last year I have been looking at other drivers and putting myself forward. I’ve personally had no luck, it's just so competitive.

Another thing that factors into it is budget, a lot of these drivers really struggle with budget to go racing alone, so to throw other expenses into the mix. It's challenging for drivers, they're struggling to afford to race and it’s difficult for us to get clients because there’s not much budget. It is definitely a real struggle but the graphic design side I am finding much easier client wise. I am very lucky to work with a small team who are another agency where they manage drivers and do videography.

They have gotten me a lot of graphic design work, which I am very happy to take on because I am very new to the photography side of things, which is what they take care of. There are a lot of struggles but it is worth it. When I create a piece of work that I see posted on social media it all becomes worth it. 

Do you work across other platforms such as online and print or is your work strictly social media based?

Only recently I have had the opportunity to work with a couple of teams in the FIA World Endurance Championship, so I am doing work for United Autosports this year and also TF Sport, so both GT3 cars in the World and British Championship. I have been able to do driver cards for their teams which were printed off for the first round in Qatar, so that was a first for me and the first time I have seen my work printed off and used, which was really cool. But typically it is mainly social media and Instagram, on the management side I’ve tried to convince Taylor to get TikTok but I don’t think he is too keen. So it is mainly Instagram but I have had some of my work printed off recently such as posters, which is something I never thought would happen.

Would you say social media boosted your career?

Absolutely. It started with social media. I was seeing things on social media and that’s what I was aspiring to. It's so rewarding seeing your work get posted. The stand out for me was last year, Abbi Pulling’s team came to me the day before her race in Qatar asking if there was any chance I could post a champion graphic of her account for tomorrow. Seeing it posted on her account as she won the championship was surreal. That’s the main stand out one for me.

What are your thoughts on the role of social media in modern motorsport journalism?

I think social media is everything nowadays. It’s not even about the followers as such or a number count. It’s putting meaningful media out, interacting with people and making them feel involved within the sport. I just think it’s so important that we give people a platform to speak. It’s not even about motorsport, a lot of drivers are now speaking on political things as well.

It’s a really strong place to voice your opinions and give people that platform, and also just keeping people in the loop. If I want to find out where someone has finished in a race I can go to their Instagram or the socials of the series they're running in, it’s such a fundamental place. It’s not like when the results were printed in the paper and you would find out the next day, you can go online within minutes now of something finishing and you can find a full set of results. It’s quite impressive to see how big a role social media plays in motorsport nowadays. Formula 1 specialty, even Drive To Survive, all that social side has grown the sport massively so I think it’s really interesting to delve into.

Top tips for promoting on social media?

It’s not about how much you post, you could post content multiple times a day and it not be meaningful. The main tip I have is to post meaningful content even if it’s not as often as you would like. I think interacting with people and the quality of content is more important than the rate you post. I could post three times a day and it won’t gain as much interaction because people aren’t as interested in it. You want to post something really interesting that is going to get a lot of interaction even if it’s not as often.

Do you have any advice for those who want to get into graphic design or motorsport media?

This is the most important topic for me. I think we live in a world now where you have to chase it, if you want to get involved you have to chase it. I put myself out there and that’s how I am in this position. I’m not saying working for free is always the way to go but it's a start. I put myself out working with drivers for free for about 6 months to a year and now I am being paid by them.

Get yourself out there, make opportunities for yourself and even networking. Networking is such a huge thing, I really recommend LinkedIn. I stand by it because of the amount of connections I have made in the motorsport world and people with similar interests. There are so many ways you can go about it. Build up a portfolio. I now have a portfolio that has work on there that I might not necessarily of charged people for but it's work that I now have to show off and work I can use to get people’s attention.

The main stand out thing to me is if you want to get involved you need to go and chase it. Email teams and drivers, get in contact and pester people because all it takes is that one driver to say maybe I’ll give this person a shot and see what they can do. In my case Taylor was that person. I had a phone call with Taylor before taking over his social media account where I told him in fair warning I don’t know what I’m doing with running a social media account and the first thing you want me to do is manage a Mclaren announcement, so he was definitely taking a risk. He said we’d do it together and here I am. Get involved, take a risk, put yourself out there and things will happen if you work hard enough for it. 

📸 Image credits: McLaren Racing, Marcel Fischer.