Redefining Creativity

"Hollywood is a mindset." Eleanora (Leeper) Morrison, or Ellie as her Trinity University friends may remember her, reflects on the white, blocky letters of the Hollywood sign that used to tower over her old neighborhood. It's a sight she had grown used to on her daily walks when she lived in the city, her hands softly gripping the rubber of the stroller as she pushed her newborn. She moved from San Antonio to Los Angeles to pursue her creative dream. However, once a marker of the creative industry, the Hollywood sign's meaning has shifted with time.

As she stares at the sign, it seems to stare back. To her, it's "a relic of the past." The entertainment industry is no longer gatekept by producers and studios. Instead, it is placed into the hands of the people. Through social media and other developing forms of technology, "the entertainment industry is dismantling." Today, the creative industry permeates well beyond Los Angeles, reaching into San Antonio through the efforts of creative women like Morrison.

Wearing a vibrant red dress paired with large, square-framed, cheetah-print glasses, Morrison's creative and bold personality is clear. Her rich brown hair is tied back into a sleek bun, a staple hairstyle of the time. She relaxes, her professional and friendly demeanor on display as she leans back into the soft quilted plush of her chair. Morrison, a 2011 Trinity University alumna, received the Magazine of the Year award at the 2019 Texas Fashion Industry Awards. Yet, despite her lasting impact on San Antonio, she remains easy-going and approachable.

The College Experience

Beginning at Trinity University as a communication major in 2007, Morrison thrust herself into every creative opportunity that was offered. From "producing and hosting the 'Not So Late Show'" on Tiger TV to "hip-hop danc(ing) in Loon-E Crew," Morrison was able to pursue every one of her "varied interests," something she credits to Trinity's liberal arts-style program and the communication department.

It was at Trinity that Morrison discovered the "concept of personal branding" and storytelling. "I think I was drawn to branding from a young age," she reflects. "I remember taking (former communication professor) Dr. Jennifer Henderson's class, and she was pioneering this new research field about media, culture, and technology." With a focus on the growing influence of Facebook as a culturally revolutionary app, Morrison recalls the class "making such a huge impact" on her. "Trinity was so essential for me," she continues her ramble, smiling as she reminisces. "It was learning that the dots connect across different subjects and across different points in history, art, and philosophy. It was my education that I am using now, in the work that I do for clients."

An Unconventional Path to Her Dream

There was no set path to getting to where she is today, Morrison admits. "I would say it was a natural and organic progression." She started in more traditional jobs, working for a nonprofit in fundraising. "They were great for me to learn through, but I knew that they were not creative enough for how my imagination works; how I love to exist in the world and what I like to create." To fulfill that creative void, she found a new outlet: blogging.

"I started a blog, and I had no idea what I was doing, but I had an interest particularly in talking about San Antonio, about lifestyle and about fashion," Morrison admits, following the 2014 trend. She continued her blog while simultaneously working alongside her mother, writing "all of (her) local event coverage" for her magazine Society Diaries. "I ended up realizing that blogging was not substantive enough for me. What I'm actually doing is editorial," she recognized, talking through her thought process at that time. "I ended up writing about other people, and women, even though it was my blog. It just naturally progressed into a content platform."

With her epiphany, Morrison rebranded her blog under the name Oh Eleanora, a phrase her grandmother would say to her when she was being her "most exuberant self." Oh Eleanora quickly took on an editorial focus of other women, growing locally and becoming "one of the most read local blogs." She smiles, surprise and pride clear from her breathy laugh as she recalls the blog's immense popularity. "I don't know why," she confesses. "I think it was because I was lucky to have a network here from my whole life," who provided her access to compelling individuals such as the former public relations director of Neiman Marcus. Morrison was quickly launched into the "front row of the San Antonio fashion scene," where she "learned so much" and improved her interview skills.

By 2018, her creative passion could no longer be contained by Oh Eleanora. "I really want(ed) to make this into a digital magazine, so we did. We made ELEANORA Magazine." While not a complete rebrand, she was able to move away from the more individualistic structure of blogs to talk about other women in the magazine. "This is where the magic really started happening," she grins. With the support and encouragement of her husband, she decided to "triple down" on ELEANORA Magazine, providing herself the "creative license" to "do huge photoshoots" and "tell stories in a visual way."

Her inspiration came from women in history, aligning with the "women's empowerment" movement at the time. A specific photoshoot she did was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, and theorized author of The Great Gatsby. She wanted to honor and mourn the women who came before her, highlighting who they could have been had society accepted women's voices.

The photoshoot also came from a place of Morrison's uncertainty about her own potential. "I was searching for an example of strength because I knew I had it in me, and I was trying to chisel it out. I felt so misunderstood because I wasn't 'making it' in the ways that I had hoped that I would." It was a unique photoshoot. Morrison physically portrayed Fitzgerald, transforming herself to reflect the 1920s style. Her hair short, lips red and long cigarette in hand, Morrison embodied Fitzgerald, all while providing an example of her art and creative direction.

As she reminisces on the photoshoot, her more serious and thoughtful demeanor breaks, and she begins to laugh, her entire body shifting. "I got into character, played some music from a time that I had a heartbreak. I was making noises and grunting and doing whatever. The elevator doors dinged open, and it was two businessmen in suits with their roller bag," she cuts herself off with a laugh. "It opened, and I was like a crazy lady going nuts in the hallway, and they didn't even get out of the elevator; they pushed a different floor. I remained in character through all that. I remember we were dying laughing."

From San Antonio to Los Angeles

The female-focused photoshoot for Carmel Snow was "what got a lot of attention," she muses. "It was a huge production," of creative minds gathering together. Friends of Morrison's did makeup and hair, provided sets and antiques, and assisted in the creation of Morrison's vision. All for free. It was "for the sake of art." The photoshoot "ran digitally," presenting something that "was so different from what people had seen." Being based in San Antonio, however, restricted the creative expression that Morrison exudes. Her directive style was largely editorial, built upon building a story and emotions rather than the selling of products. "Businesses didn't understand how to sponsor us or how to integrate their brand. It was still too early in San Antonio, but it did lead me to get some opportunities in L.A."

Morrison ended up moving to California in 2021, hoping that Los Angeles would understand her creative vision. It wasn't until ELEANORA won Magazine of the Year in 2019 that her artistic vision was more accepted overall. The recognition unlocked new elements of creative direction for Morrison, elements of "production, styling, and other components" that mirrored her "original love of performance and theater." Companies began to see Morrison as a director who could "consult for their brand, help them do (photo)shoots and tell stories." She entered the world of "consulting and brand marketing" and earned the title of creative director.

"Over the years, my consulting has developed into creative direction for content campaigns and marketing," she explains. "I prepare the whole creative direction. I do the documents. We get all the people on board. We do the shoots." She and her equally creatively-driven husband, Dan Morrison, established Morrison Creative in 2023. The company offers services in design and creative direction for projects nationwide. "You start to understand your creativity and your style, and then it becomes a service that you can offer other people," she says.

The Return Home

Creative direction might have taken her beyond her fifth-generation San Antonio roots, but in 2023, Morrison was determined to bring her passion back to the place that started it all. "I felt this innate knowing that the braver thing to do and the bigger act of leadership was to come back," she explains. "To start and really build something that could (make) creative professional opportunities for a whole generation of people." Morrison felt that San Antonio didn't understand her creative direction in its early development, providing her rationale for moving to Los Angeles, but now, she was going to return to her hometown and make herself known.

"This (was) going to be the harder thing, because you're pioneering something that doesn't exist in the way that you're thinking about it," Morrison says. "The next phase of my career was to put that to the test and say, 'I've learned all these skills. I can have a global career and build my village here.'"

In her latest creative project, Morrison, alongside her husband and her co-founder, Lorenzo Gomez, established Voice of San Antonio. "I wanted to get outside of myself and tell stories about the city. I wanted to see them told in a really creative, uplifting way that highlighted culture and reflected San Antonio's magic and innate potential back to everybody who's chosen it," Morrison explains. Voice of San Antonio offers a uniquely authentic perspective on the city that Morrison describes as "storytelling for impact instead of storytelling for clickbait."

Morrison has realized a new perspective on Hollywood, different from its formerly stagnant identity in Los Angeles. "It's an innate knowing of 'I can Hollywood anywhere, and I'm just going to go build it.' It's just a deep belief in the city, the people, and the creative community here that I would like to invest my efforts into growing."

Somewhere in San Antonio, by the Alamo, on Trinity's campus, or maybe in the front lawn of the Morrison residence, exists a Hollywood sign. In its imaginative, white, and blocky lettering, it towers over the city. It is an artifact representative of creation and production, and it is no longer unique to California. Instead, it acts as a symbolic marker of the creative development that San Antonio experiences, in part, through the return of Ellie Morrison.