A graphic design student on NE Campus has become the first TCC student to win a Crystal Award at the Fort Worth chapter of this year’s American Advertising Awards.
It’s one of the largest competitions in the advertising industry, recognizing visual communicators from professional and student levels.
Jesi Swank won for her design of a dust jacket for the book “Alice in Wonderland.” She came out on top against submissions from students at four-year universities, including UNT and TCU.
“I want it to be an inspiration to other people,” Swank said.
The piece began as an assignment for her Digital Publishing class instructed by Stacy Jobe. The assignment asked students to develop a cover design for a book selected from Project Gutenberg, a public domain archive.
Swank has been a nurse and nurse educator for 25 years and has been working as an instructional designer at JPS Health Network for the last 11 years, creating digital training modules for medical professionals.
She started on NE in fall 2025 and began learning Adobe InDesign, an industry-standard graphic design software.
“I loathed Adobe products,” she said. “I did not like them at all, and now I’m irritated at all my other programs because my e-learning software doesn’t behave like InDesign.”
At the time Swank designed the dust jacket, she had only received 14 days of instruction using InDesign. Her initial concept didn’t turn out the way she wanted, leading her to take a few steps back and rework it.
“You have to be willing not to fall in love with your idea,” Jobe said.
Jobe pointed out that Swank’s strength lies in how she balances big-picture thinking with detailed execution.
“I wanted an old look,” Swank said.
Jobe tells her students about the awards, but it’s ultimately up to them to apply and pay the submission fee. She worked at Lockheed Martin for almost 30 years, where entries were submitted in professional categories, so she was aware of the student categories. She once hired a TCU student after seeing his work at the ADDYs.
Swank’s reasoning behind submitting her dust jacket was simple: self-validation. She holds a master’s degree in nursing but wanted to prove to herself that she was good enough in graphic design. This is the first award she has applied for, and she has her sights set on more.
“You’ve got to keep going up the ladder,” she said.
Her time at TCC is a step toward her goal of starting her own health care e-learning company.
NE graphic design instructor Chris Flynn compared Swank’s work ethic to that of inventor Thomas Edison.
“She is unafraid to try and push the envelope, doesn’t give up easily,” he said. “She is determined.”
The award carries personal meaning for Swank, reinforcing her confidence in her creativity, design skills and ability to start her own company.
“I cried a little when I got home because I beat my brains out for 11 years trying to get to that point where I could be recognized as an artistic-creative person, not as a nurse,” she said.
