Lead UI Artist

Lead UI Artist | Art | London | Permanent

We’re Hutch, a mobile games developer & publisher with studios in central London, Dundee and Canada. Our mission is to build the most diverse and engaged automotive gaming community on mobile. Our games have been played by over 300 million people, with new titles in development.

We believe in putting our people first. Here you can make games without sacrificing quality time with family and friends. We strive to ensure our people are happy and healthy.  

Our teams are small and empowered, they have the independence to take on creative and technical challenges together, to work collaboratively, to make great games and have fun along the way. 

We believe in; Looking after our people, small empowered teams, complete transparency, test, learn repeat, community at the core and the freedom to focus on what truly makes a difference to our players.

We’re driven by our players! Come and Join the mission!

Lead UI Artist

Hutch is looking for a Lead UI Artist to join the team in London to own and deliver visually impressive free to play gaming experiences. We really value our players and you will be a key part of defining how they interact with our games. You will have a strong understanding of UI Art and Design and have an ability to lead and create sleek, clean and stylish user interfaces. You should be collaborative, working in partnership with UX, Art Director and Design with the ability to quickly understand, translate and lead UI requirements into beautiful user experiences.

Responsibilities

• Head up, lead and be the focal point of the UI team, partnering with Art Direction, UX, Design and Product to prepare excellent UI designs including pitching ideas and partnering with the visual direction taking day to day ownership
• Create and maintain style & brand guides, asset language & naming and project structure(s) within Figma and Unity, adhere to IP licensing and IP requirements
• Create high quality UI artwork and the associated source assets to match the high quality visual style of our game(s)
• Ensure visual consistency and quality is maintained throughout the project and maintaining a design system in partnership with the team
• Support and mentor the team, identify training needs, guiding career progression and creative improvements
• Manage 360 communications, relationships and expectations across the teams
• Work with client engineers to implement performant, well functioning and bug free UI within Unity, keep abreast of new technologies, pipelines and industry trends
• Be required to lead team presentations and meetings and attend regular design meetings
• Planning, costing and scheduling work alongside production, balancing scope against milestones and delivery
• Work with and promote cross collaboration with the wider company and other project teams
• Proactively drive and advance project-level UI design decisions in close collaboration with key stakeholders

Requirements

• Proven UI Art leadership experience within the games industry on multiple titles, in particular on a live product
• High quality visual art and design pieces within portfolio with proven visual design skills 
• Experience in creating, maintaining and evolving a design system for a digital product
• Experience of the design workflow, starting from concept level, through wireframes to functioning prototypes
• The ability to demonstrate a practical understanding of UX/communication design conventions and how they affect player behaviour and be aware of current and emerging trends
• Have an excellent sense of visual language and messaging, keeping consistency across multiple areas of a project
• Unity experience with the ability to implement assets and aid technical improvements
• Excellent, proven skills with Figma & Adobe Creative Cloud software
• Strong understanding with AI tools and AI generated imagery
• Experience in working with 3rd party IP brand holders & licensing teams 
• A desire to have a big impact within a small empowered team
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Experience with version control (Unity VCS/Plastic a bonus)

Bonus Points

At Hutch we have very varied roles, so we’d welcome any of the additional skills but it is not a requirement

• Experience in VFX, 2D animation and motion graphics
• Experience with 3D art software such as 3DS Max, Maya, Blender or Substance
• Experience with re branding, working with and evolving existing IP’s 
• Experience in creating ASO, UA, Social and Marketing
• Technical art skills

Benefits

Life at Hutch

Our HQ is in the heart of Shoreditch in central London. We have additional offices in Dundee and Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. We're an agile, creative team with people at the core of our values. We reward our employees with;

• Hutch is a 4-Day Work Week company*
• Flexible working hours
• Remote working 2 days per week
• Excellent salary
• Private health care
• Enhanced Maternity (18 weeks) and Paternity leave (6 weeks)
• Access to mental health initiatives such as private mental health coaching
• Support to learn, develop and progress within Hutch
• Free snacks and drinks
• Social events, game launch parties, Thursday night drinks and much more
• *This will mean that Hutch employees will work a maximum of 4 days per week (30 hours/week) Mon-Thurs, with zero reductions in pay (compared to a 5 day working week).

Our Values

• Transparent - Being transparent and open helps us to be trusted and fosters integrity.
• Humble - When we are humble we show humility, we let go of egos and we are self-aware.
• Collaborative - We value teamwork, the spirit of collaboration and the results of working together.
• Driven - We have drive and ambition and always push for the best results rather than settling.
• Adaptable - Demonstrating the ability to adapt ultimately helps us grow and helps us thrive in different situations

We value diversity and as an equal opportunity employer we encourage applications from all suitable applicants. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Please see Hutch Privacy Policy for details on how Hutch uses your personal data.

Come and find out more about Hutch. We make racing games, but it’s not the only thing that drives us - https://www.hutch.io/

Proven UI Art leadership experience within the games industry on multiple titles, in particular on a live product; High quality visual art and design pieces within portfolio with proven visual design skills; Experience in creating, maintaining and evolving a design system for a digital product; Experience of the design workflow, starting from concept level, through wireframes to functioning prototypes; The ability to demonstrate a practical understanding of UX/communication design conventions and how they affect player behaviour and be aware of current and emerging trends; Have an excellent sense of visual language and messaging, keeping consistency across multiple areas of a project; Unity experience with the ability to implement assets and aid technical improvements; Excellent, proven skills with Figma & Adobe Creative Cloud software; Strong understanding with AI tools and AI generated imagery; Experience in working with 3rd party IP brand holders & licensing teams; A desire to have a big impact within a small empowered team; Excellent communication and presentation skills; Experience with version control (Unity VCS/Plastic a bonus)