Happy Hutch-A-Versary to Jonny! He’s celebrating 10 years at Hutch and is currently our Chief Creative Officer. Keep reading to find out why he’s stuck around for so long and why he thinks Hutch is like a mantis shrimp!

Being a Hutchie...

What’s been your favourite moment at Hutch?

There have been a lot of good moments. My personal favourite is when we decided to take photos of cars for the Top Drives app icon. We had to rent some very nice cars and drive them about 90mins north to a venue for a photoshoot. Nothing high speed but we spent the whole day hopping in and out of cars and basically having a lot of fun. The icon also turned out well!

Which 3 words best describe your time at Hutch so far?

Unpredictable, entertaining, satisfying

If Hutch was an animal, what would it be?

A mantis shrimp. Unassuming but can deliver a seriously focused punch.

If Hutch was a car, what would it be?

I could spend hours thinking about this! I’m thinking at least partially British (with our London HQ), comfortable and fast. Maybe the new(ish) Bentley Continental GT.

What is your favourite Hutch benefit? How do you use it?

I think it’s Hutch’s flexibility and focus on work-life balance. An example of this is that Hutch has always taken a hybrid approach - at least two days per week working from home. And later this year we’ll be taking part in a trial of a 4-day working week. I use this flexibility to simply take some pressure off my family life (i.e. a typical family life with young kids) which is invaluable.

Jonny's role...

What's your role at Hutch?

My role is Chief Creative Officer. I work closely with the Game Directors on each of our teams and try to keep a high level view of where we are and where we’re going from a product and game design standpoint.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt at Hutch?

Probably resilience. The mobile gaming market is a hugely competitive and unpredictable space. We’ve had to deal with big downs as well as big ups and the goal is to keep learning and always move forward.

What’s been your biggest challenge?

See above. Basically the fact that a large percentage of games won’t work commercially. We have to accept that but also constantly look for ways to make sure we’re delivering games that the players truly want.

What advice would you give to someone interested in doing a similar role?

Don’t let the unpredictability of the market get you down.

Car Stuff...

How much do you like cars?

A lot! I’ve been pretty much obsessed with cars from an early age. I get it from my dad.

What would be your dream car?

Boring answer for anyone that knows me but I consider a Caterham to be the greatest car ever made. I’ve been lucky to have owned two and am hoping to build another one in the next few years. If I’m allowed a second dream car then I would love to spec out a Singer 911.

What’s the coolest car-related thing you’ve done while working at Hutch?

There have been a lot. The photoshoot mentioned above was great fun. I’ve enjoyed our discussions and track days with the team at Evo magazine (after being a long-time reader, it was great to actually get to work with them on Top Drives). I got to do a passenger lap with Tiff Needell in a Nissan GT-R Nismo. Amazing car and also incredible to have Tiff narrate constantly while he’s battling to keep the car on the track.

But if I had to pick one, it would be our involvement in the TwinTown rally organised by the SpecialEffect charity. Basically, buy a £500 car, put on fancy dress and then head off to France for a series of challenges. I’ve always been jealous of Top Gear and their challenges and this let us live out that fantasy (a little bit). We had two teams and just the act of pulling up into a car park and ‘accidentally’ banging into our fellow Hutchies car was priceless :)

Fancy joining Hutch? Check out our latest vacancies here: https://www.hutch.io/careers