Introduction
Hello to the YPN community! My name is Daniel Gill, and I am an Art Director in the Esri Creative Lab. I work with an incredible team of creatives, and together we bring Esri's stories to life across a range of media. If you have ever been to an Esri event, explored our website, watched Esri videos, or used an Esri product you have seen our work in action. I am writing here to briefly share my career path to Esri as well as a look behind the scenes at my work there.
Me in my home office
Starting Out
I was born and raised in the great state of Michigan, but my journey to Esri involved a few other stops along the way. When I was 15, a change in my father's career relocated our family westward from my home town in St. Joseph to rural Nevada where I would spend my high school years. My high school offered a basic graphic design course, and it served as my first introduction to the discipline. The class was less than rigorous, but it was enough to get me thinking about design as a future vocation. By the time I was nearing graduation, I already had my mind set on studying graphic design, being convinced to some degree that it was the most practical discipline in the arts that might afford me a better career than painting landscapes.
I went on to attend Southern Utah University (SUU) in Cedar City where I would earn my BFA in Graphic Design. SUU has an excellent arts program, and I was fortunate to spend 4 formative years there. While a student, I was able to land my first real design job working for the College of Performing and Visual Arts. I designed posters and marketing materials to promote plays and other events. The work was varied and engaging, and I managed to come away with a few portfolio pieces in the process.
A few projects from my time in school
Career Beginnings
The decision to make SUU my Alma Mater ended up being a fateful one, as it was there that I made my first connection to Esri. I owe my career at Esri at least in part to the recommendation of a professor and mentor who, on the eve of my college graduation, suggested that I apply for Esri's internship program. I had never heard of Esri (or GIS) before, but like many college grads, I was eager to take opportunities as they came and sort out the details later. I hastily assembled a PDF portfolio and sent it off to a contact at the Esri Creative Lab, which at that time was somewhat less ceremonially referred to as the graphics department. My assemblage of work was enough to land a phone interview and soon thereafter, I was offered the internship for the summer with the potential to be a full-time hire later on. I moved down to Redlands in June, just a month after my graduation, and I felt very fortunate to have begun my career so quickly. It is not lost on me that opportunities are often not as easy to come by. It was the summer of 2010 and reverberations of the 2008 recession still seemed to be looming large in the public imagination. Nevertheless, the internship work kept me busy all summer, and after a corporate interview that September, I was hired full-time as a junior graphic designer.
This June 2025 marks my 15-year anniversary with the company. In comparison to the work histories of many, this may seem like a long time at a place of employment, but many of my colleagues have me beat by a decade or two. I steadily progressed from junior to mid-level to senior designer and eventually to an art director.
A collection of print work I created over the years with Esri
Being a Designer at Esri
My work primarily centers around visual identity, print and layout design, illustration, storyboarding, motion graphics, video production, digital signage, web content, event and environment design, apparel, and promotional materials. The project gamut has been uncommonly wide for a graphic designer, especially for one working in an in-house design setting, but I have enjoyed the variety of experience.
My day-to-day work is occupied by all manner of design tasks both big and small. One day I might be working on motion graphics for the Esri User Conference (UC) stage or creating templates for Esri videos. The next, I might be working on an illustration or a book design. The elements that comprise the Esri visual brand are varied and continuously evolving, and I work with dozens of other designers to develop the visual landscape that our users engage with every day. I propose many key art packages that become the guiding aesthetic for our events and campaigns. I also have a hand in fashioning some of the graphics that populate our many web pages, and I’ll often work closely across teams to help support consistent implementation of the Esri visual brand across a multiplicity of concurrent initiatives.
Esri’s annual User Conference in San Diego each summer brings with it the largest influx of projects, and much of the design work we produce year-round exists within its vast orbit. If you have ever attended the conference or watched it online, you have seen some of my work. If you have ever stopped by the Esri UC store, you may even have purchased a shirt I’ve designed.
Recent work for Esri
Tools of the trade
I spend my days (and sometimes nights) in Adobe's Creative Suite. Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and After Effects round out the core of my daily tools, but I'll often make use of many others like Lightroom and Premiere. Technology is ever evolving, and I am not exempt from adaptation to its changes. Over the years, I've been working to integrate a little more 3D into my work with Cinema 4D and Adobe's Substance suite. That, of course, feels like an on-going process that may never seem settled, so if you're daunted by new technology, you're in good company here. At the end of the day, it's the idea that matters, so I try not to get too hung up on every new tool and stick to the fundamentals. I'll often sketch out ideas in Procreate on my iPad or sometimes on good old-fashioned paper.
A Few Tips
I won't pretend to be a master in the field, but if you have an interest in a design career and you'll indulge my unsolicited advice, I can offer a few tips based on my experience.
Mentor and Be Mentored.
Learning from others is crucial for growth, and I've been lucky enough to be mentored by some pros as well as to mentor others myself. After years of work, you may take the knowledge you possess for granted and forget that it might be new and invaluable to someone else. Nurture those relationships with others and see how you can help each other. You'll both learn and be better for it.
Doing good work doesn't mean perfection every time.
Steph Curry is one of the best 3-point shooters of all time, but even he misses 6 shots for every 10 he takes from beyond the arc. Sometimes design work can feel like that too. You take a lot of shots hoping to make the one that counts. There is iteration, experimentation, revision, and more than a few discarded ideas on the road to one that works. Good designers keep on moving even when ideas aren't landing. Each miss makes you better, and eventually you're an NBA champion...I mean moderately successful designer.
Don't wait around for ideas.
If you sit around waiting for an idea to happen, it usually doesn't. The process of having an idea is an active one. Even if I have an inkling that some early ideas aren't quite there, I still experiment with fleshing them out to see if they lead to something better. Save all those half-finished ideas. You never know when one may be the spark you need to get started on something else in the future.
You learn as you go.
I would like to say that I emerged from college as a fully formed professional with surplus ability to offer, but nothing could be further from the truth. I still had a long way to go and a lot to learn. Now a decade and a half into my career, the learning continues. If you're just getting started, know that you'll probably learn more on the job than in school, so keep on moving and the knowledge comes along the way.
Rejection is inevitable.
No matter how good you are, you can't make everyone like your work. Design work, even at its most rational, dances around a subjective sphere full of varied tastes, experiences, and interpretations. Navigating compromises, articulating ideas, and accepting criticism are all part of the game. I try to approach every project like it's the most valuable thing in the world, but I also need to be willing to let it go.
Drawing is still important.
If I had to pick one skill in my repertoire that influences and undergirds all the other skills, it's probably drawing—you know, the good old-fashioned kind with a pencil. The ability to draw out ideas is so fundamental that we can engage with cultures from bygone eras simply by viewing the marks they made on cave walls and long-buried urns. Drawing isn't just the process of making an image, it's the process of thinking visually. It's about taking the time to think and to allow those ideas to grow. It's hard and frustrating, but it's worth the effort if only for its role in exercising the mind. So don't just rely on searches and AI prompts. Bring a pencil and see where it takes you.
Epilogue
My mother had a lack of decorum that was pronounced enough to be advantageous in situations where the more faint-hearted would have cowered behind their propriety. In the summer before I began high school, she marched me into the art teacher's office with a pile of art samples to insist that I was qualified to test out of the freshman-level art class and move on to the senior-level independent study class. I of course stood there like a brittle conglomerate of mortification and dread, wishing that the floor could somehow soften so I could sink further into it and out of view. The teacher ended up complying with my mother's demands, although now I suspect it was more to avoid being further harangued than it was to reward my talents. All debate about merit aside, the class ended up being enormously productive. I completed dozens of paintings in the semester, and I suspect my industriousness caught the teacher off guard. My predicament lit a fire beneath me to produce something worthwhile as I found myself caught in an awkward social situation between bewildered classmates and an apprehensive teacher. In hindsight, I was grateful for that year, and I still reflect on it fondly. No doubt, it was a formative chapter both for the independence it offered as well as the crash course in self-governance and initiative. I include this story here, because I would be remiss to talk about a career journey without paying some form of homage to my mother. She passed away in June of 2024, but if she were here, she would still be overselling my talent. Thanks, Mom.
Find Out More
If you're interested, you can find more of my work at danielgilldesign.com.
The Creative Lab is always on the hunt for talented designers who want to bring stories to life. If you're one of them, check out esri.com/careers.
