Graphic Design student wins Fall 2016 Helen Hamilton Award for Excellence in Creative Expression

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TCU’s student-run undergraduate journal of the arts, eleven40seven, promotes the artistic and creative endeavors of TCU undergraduate students. Each semester, the journal’s staff selects the best art submission for the Helen Hamilton Award for Excellence in Creative Expression, an award created in 2014 as part of the Hamilton Family eleven40seven Endowment to honor their daughter, Helen.

This year’s winner is Self Portrait, a drawing by Emma Holland, which depicts Holland from multiple angles.

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Holland’s drawing was selected from 140 entries, and she will receive a commemorative trophy.

“Emma’s drawing is aesthetically appealing due to its different textures and the attention to detail,” said Karlyn Tunnell, editor-in-chief of eleven40seven. “Our staff appreciated her unique perspective for a self-portrait and the statement it makes about body image in young women.”

Holland, a junior Graphic Design major, is a recipient of the Nordan Young Artist Graphic Design Scholarship and a member of the TCU Graphic Design Honors Society. In addition to winning the Helen Hamilton Award this year, she had three entries selected in 2015, including an abstract oil painting titled, The Mountain, which a family friend commissioned, and two graphite portraits, one featuring a sleeping baby and the other a self-portrait. Holland currently has three works featured in the Graphis New Talent International Annual Competition; these works also will appear in an upcoming advertising campaign for Crest 3D White Whitestrips.

Holland is an active member of several TCU organizations, including the TCU Design Focus Club, as well as the Dallas Society of Visual Communication and the American Advertising Federation of Fort Worth. Upon graduation, she hopes to work at a large design firm or in-house at a company such as Apple or Starbucks to gain a better understanding of the role of design in society on a broad scale. She plans to own a design firm.

Eleven40seven got its name from the founders’ spirit of individuality. In 2005, the journal’s founders planned a brainstorming session for noon before changing the meeting time to 11:47 a.m. for originality. While nothing came from the brainstorming session, the time stuck and is the title of the publication. Eleven40seven is a publication that offers students a platform to display original creative work and to support individuality in the work of their peers. The generosity of the Hamilton Family Endowment, Dr. James Giles, the TCU English Department, and the TCU New Media Writing Studio makes eleven40seven possible.