Dream Teams: Amy Fasey and Jacob Hellström’s Endless Inspiration

Amy Fasey hails from a farm in the Hastings countryside. After starting her career at Wieden + Kennedy, she’s since worked at other notable agencies such as AMV BBDO, Pablo, and Y&R. Jacob Hellström, the other half of ‘Jacob & Amy’, is from Stockholm, Sweden. Dismayed by the darkness and cold, he packed his bags and began his career in sunny San Francisco, California. Since then, he’s picked up a quasi-American accent and created award-winning work for clients such as Oakley, Apple, and Virgin America.

These two forces first collided six years ago, and Amy recalls it was ‘mega awks’. They sat in the basement of the Costa Coffee opposite Greater London House and there was a power cut, so they had to spend most of their time talking in complete darkness. At that time, Jacob had just moved to London and agencies had told him he needed a creative partner, while Amy was on the hunt too. What happened in the Costa Coffee was an impromptu interview between the two where they awkwardly tried to amount to ‘do you like making cool work too?’. “Crazy how well it worked out,” says Jacob today, six years and £10,000 later raised for the ‘Vagina Museum’. But more on that later.

At the time, Amy had just moved to Y&R and was going solo, having looked for a creative partner for quite some time to no avail. “I asked my then new boss, Jon Burley, aka Cupid, if he had any recruiters to help me find someone, and after meeting a few other people, Jacob stood out.” However, Jacob remembers himself being quite arrogant when Amy’s book was shared with him. “I had a mere one more year of experience than her and felt like I would be taking a big step back by working with someone who wasn’t as ‘experienced’ as I was. Thankfully, I stopped being an idiot and saw past my ego and recognised all the great creative thinking Amy had in her work.” Jacob admits that to this day, he still winces at the thought of what would’ve happened if he had passed up working with Amy and the terrible mistake that would’ve been.

As far as first impressions go, after stalking him online (as one does), Amy remembers thinking “Holy shit, his work is incredible,”... followed by “Holy shit, he’s tall” after the meeting in real life. Jacob, on the other hand, was floored by the infinite amount of energy and ideas that were pouring out of Amy - something that hasn't changed until present day.

Cue their first project together, for a cruise line. “It was, to be brutally honest, pretty uninspiring. But it wasn’t long until we had spec decks coming out of our ears and waving them under the noses of any creative director we could get a hold of.” The reason things go so smoothly, so quickly, according to Amy, lies in the fact that both her and Jacob tackle briefs in opposite ways. “Jacob can think of things in an entirely different way to me and I am always in awe of the brilliant, zany thoughts he brings to the table. We’ve got a great friend and ex-colleague who always said to us, ‘surround yourself with radiators, not drains’. Jacob is a radiator. And we feed off one another’s creative energy.”

And although the pair look  at things in such a different light, Jacob believes that their workflow is lined with the same fundamental point of view regarding the quality of work they want to produce. “We want to make things that do something good for people, whether that’s making someone laugh, putting the spotlight on a creator, or helping out a cause that we care about.” 

A project where this ethos shines is their campaign for the opening of the ‘Vagina Museum’ in Bethnal Green. Following six months of closure, the gynaecological museum opened its doors once again and Amy and Jacob’s work raised thousands of pounds to keep the premises open. Amy explains that this project  was potentially one of the toughest of their careers, as all of it was done pro-bono over multiple lockdowns, while her and Jacob were playing the roles of creatives, suits, producers, editors, designers and accountants. Other career highlights for the two include Comic Relief and the NHS Organ Donation campaign they worked on together. 

The Christmas advert that they made for Taco Bell UK also gets a honourable mention here. “Working directly with a YouTuber to make a video that ran only once on TV was really cool. We spent the rest of the budget on giving away free tacos. It was all done outside the normal process of creating a campaign, which was challenging, but also liberating,” says Jacob.

However, betterment of society through their work is only one aspect of team Amy and Jacob. Another big one is the fact that they also love a good laugh. Their comedic work is a crossover between both of their senses of humour, bringing Swedish and British jokes together masterfully. But, when working on comedy projects, they put the brand at the centre of the idea and from there, decide on what level of humour they can take the work to. “Sometimes, comedy might not be right at all. But to be honest, after the last few years we’ve had, we do like adding a bit of humour where we can,” Amy says, to which Jacob agrees: “We’re not making ads for Amy & Jacob (sadly), so step one is making sure that the work does the job we need for the client, and then we can inject it with our creativity and playfulness.”

Besides humour, the two have spent much time learning  how to weld their aesthetics together - developed separately through years of experience without each other. “We always send bits from Instagram and TikTok to each other. Shared Pinterest boards are a must! But overall, just being open to one another’s styles and working together to ensure it’s right for the project,” says Amy. “Interestingly, we both actually started our career as art directors with graphic designer degrees, and not hybrids.” 

Being art directors is not the only thing their pasts have in common - they also both come from a graphic design background, which means they’re both very visually-led and share references in a similar way, be it through social media, art, or just photos of their daily life that inspire them. “We give each other a lot of creative fodder and inspiration that we then find ways of weaving into our work to arrive at a mutual aesthetic,” explains Jacob.

Of course, with being together all the time and practically trying to share a brain, come the challenges of creative disagreement. According to Amy, the pair are lucky to have only had a handful of them. “There’s never really emotion in it, we just approach them with an open mind to the other person’s opinion. We put complete trust in one another’s opinion if one of us disagrees.” Jacob adds: “I have huge trust in Amy’s judgement, so if she feels strongly about something, I’d never try to block her thinking. You have to leave your ego aside and do your best at hearing the other person out.” 

However, there is in fact one instance where diplomacy fails… “Jacob takes approximately four hours to eat his breakfast in the mornings. I’m always tempted to steal his Weetabix,” laughs Amy.

Otherwise, the two spend a huge amount of time socialising together outside of work - the pub (of course), but also the gym, dinner, go karting, local gaming cafes and even the occasional game of Kubb. Amy got to visit Sweden, and Jacob got to see Amy’s family farm. “We also have an ongoing beer pong competition, which is fiercely competitive,” adds Jacob. Having a creative partner to both of them means also having a best friend and a confidante. “I just think we make each other’s work better,” he says. “I love hearing other people’s points of view and just listening to someone talk about a brief or a piece of work can spark new ideas for me. It’s also just a bit boring to work on your own I think.”

While having a sounding board is a huge aid for both of them, they also find inspiration in each other’s approach. While Jacob is patient and dedicated to the craft, Amy is a force of nature when it comes to overcoming obstacles to reach the final goal. “I’ve been lucky enough to bask in those rays of inspiration for the past six years and I’ve picked up just some of his master yoda skills in some areas,” says Amy. Jacob adds: “It;s been incredibly inspiring watching Amy just make shit happen. It’s incredible. She completely changed my perspective on what I think I can achieve.”