Jess started HEARLTY not because she wanted an agency that was named after herself, but rather because she craved a creative studio and a practice that was dedicated to something that was so close to her heart, it had become her heart: WORDS. And the craft of writing.
You could say it’s word lust.
Or even Hypergraphia, the obsessive urge to write.
A self-taught writer and editor, her style could be summarised by ‘words in progress’. She is inspired by the craft and process of writing as much as its outcome - as an obsessive reader of ‘behind the words’ interviews with writers dissecting their art.
Favourite quotes are too many to mention,
but at a push, the classic Hemingway
‘All you have to do is write one true sentence.’
And in a similar vein, but less known, Elena Ferrente’s
“Literary truth is not the truth of the biographer or the reporter. It’s not even the plausibility of a well constructed narrative. Literary truth is entirely a matter of wording and is directly proportional to the energy impressed on the sentence. When it works, there is no stereotype or cliche that resists it. It renaimates, revives and subjects everything to its needs.“
Jessica Hartley
WRITER, EDITOR & FOUNDER
A former lawyer, Selena swapped contracts for creative writing and has never looked back, honing her craft at award-winning consumer publications including Time Out, The Telegraph, Harrods Magazine and Dazed & Confused, as well as creating print, digital and social copy for numerous fashion and lifestyle clients.
Living and working across the globe – from Barcelona to Shanghai to London – has cemented Selena’s love for the range, richness and colour of the English language, a lifelong romance kindled by the work of wordsmiths such as Laurence Durrell, Dylan Thomas, Caleb Femi and Candice Carty-Williams. Part of the recent exodus from London to the UK’s south-east coast, she finds inspiration in beach walks, the burgeoning local art scene, and year-round sea swimming.
As a journalist, copywriter and editor working in the fashion, lifestyle and creative space, Selena finds particular joy in translating visual beauty to verbal. Anyone can string a sentence together, but good writing has an almost magical effect. As one of her favourite quotes by Margaret Atwood puts it: ‘A word after a word after a word is power’.
Selena Schleh
CREATIVE WRITER
FASHION, LIFESTYLE & CULTURE
At Heartly I help craft and identify creative strategies which can cause the most impact with the words our team writes.
Alongside my work here, I am an author/illustrator making autobiographical comics, zines and picture books inspired by healing and earth connection. My stories aspire to move my readers emotionally, therefore I can appreciate first hand the power of using words thoughtfully.
Prior to this, I worked for leading animation and VFX studios for over 15 years, as executive producer and global marketing and communications director, and co-directed 5×15 Amsterdam, the Netherlands edition
of the acclaimed 5×15.com series of talks.
Over the years I have also partnered with various artists, photographers, agencies and production companies in a freelance capacity either working on their PR, curating exhibitions or helping form meaningful relationships with future collaborators.
When I’m not working I am either walking, making up stories with my 10 year old son or reading comics by Gabrielle Bell and Julie Doucet.
Hannah McDonald
IDEAS PERSON, AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR
BASED IN AMSTERDAM
Brevity is the toughest to do, so I'll be brief. After close to 30 years of writing about art, architecture, advertising, brands, fashion, films, holidays, location filming, music, restaurants and sport, I can say with some certainty that I love words, and I love to make a sentence sing.
Am genuinely unsure as to whether the eternal search for verbal perfection is aided by the fact that I speak Spanish, French and Dutch, but I do. I work or have worked for Billboard, the Cannes Lions Daily, Location International, Media Business International, MIPTV and MIPCOM Magazines, SPIN Magazine, the SPORTEL Daily. Strategies, and Wonderlust a.o., and am a regular presenter/interviewer at the Amsterdam Dance Event, APORFEST, and Paris Electronic Week.
It was while working at Cannes Lions that I had a brand epiphany, triggered by the beauty, precision and relevance of some copy written for an Australian meat pie, it was and is true verbal perfection.
Gary Smith
WRITER
BASED IN MARSEILLE, FRANCE