Get to know Hartbreakers
Who's behind the studio, what we do, why it exists, and how it works
Meet Eric Hart
Owner of Hartbreakers Creative
I’m the sole member of the design studio Hartbreakers Creative — meaning when you work with Hartbreakers, you work directly with me.
I earned my BFA in Communications Design from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts in 2010, then left for New York City to pursue my dream of working at an ad agency in Manhattan. Three years later I landed in Tokyo, splitting my time between the two cities for the next decade — working everywhere from small mom-and-pop shops to huge multi-national agencies, in-house for Japanese tech companies and world-famous streaming platforms.
That decade shaped how I work today: senior-level thinking, applied directly, without the layers a bigger agency would add in between.
Home base
Rooted in Syracuse, NY
Hartbreakers Creative is based in Syracuse, NY — where I’m an eighth-generation resident, and where I came home to after a decade split between New York City and Tokyo.
Syracuse is in the middle of a real renaissance, and being here still shapes how I work: I take on local businesses, nonprofits, and minority- and Indigenous-owned organizations, giving them the same level of craft and attention as any national client.
But Syracuse is home base, not a boundary — Hartbreakers works with clients nationwide.
The reason why
Big-brand craft. No agency layer.
Hartbreakers Creative is a solo studio — which means when you work with me, you work with me. No account managers, no junior hand-offs, no committee sign-offs. Just the same level of thinking that’s shipped work for Disney+, HBO Max, NFL, Coca-Cola, and Kraft, applied directly to your project.
That directness is the whole model. You get senior-level creative without paying for the layers an agency needs to support it — and when a project calls for more hands, I bring in a trusted bench of vetted writers, photographers, and developers, so you’re never short on capacity, just never paying for overhead you don’t need.
Guiding principles
What you can count on
Complete Focus
Every project gets full attention — no phoning it in because the budget or brand is smaller.
Direct Access
You talk to me, not an account manager relaying notes back and forth.
Flexible Scale
Solo when a project calls for it, a trusted network when it doesn’t — you get exactly the capacity you need.
No Surprises
Clear scope, clear pricing, no surprises — you know what you’re getting before you commit.
Deliberate Craft
Every decision — color, type, structure — has a reason behind it, not just a trend.