Jennifer Daniel (illustrator)
Jennifer Daniel | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Maryland Institute College of Art (2004) |
| Known for | Illustration, graphic design, emoji |
Jennifer Daniel is an American graphic designer and art director known for her work involving emoji. She is the chair of the Emoji Standard and Research Working Group for the Unicode Consortium, and holds a position at Google. She previously worked as a graphics editor at The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
[edit]Jennifer Daniel grew up in Kansas and was on her high school's debate team. Her father works in the picture frame industry, and her mother studied zoology.[4] As a teenager, she began a lifelong journaling practice in a sketchbook form, with quotes and memories alongside grid drawings.[5] From 2000 to 2004, Daniel attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied graphic design under artists including Abbot Miller, Ellen Lupton, and Nicholas Blechman.[4] After Blechman asked to take a poster from Daniel's portfolio, she asked him for an internship and he agreed.[4]
Daniel interned at Blechman's office in New York City every summer in college, and lived in her grandmother's attic in Flushing. She later described herself as nervous during the first internship, and said she was moved from her initial phone assignment after struggling to say names.[4] She has stated: "I was there for three months, and for the first two I never asked for the bathroom key because I didn't know where it was. I just pretended like I didn't have to pee", and said she "just waited until someone else had to pee and then I snuck into the bathroom after them."[4]
Career
[edit]Soon after Daniel graduated in 2004, she answered a call from Blechman to join him at The New York Times as his assistant.[4] She later worked as a freelance artist.[6] In 2010, she became a graphics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek,[7] where art director Richard Turley said "We have this insanely good graphics director called Jennifer Daniel who we kind of stumbled on accidentally. She’s just kind of crazy. She doesn’t respond to briefs in the same way as a lot of people do. She doesn’t really have a very conventional head on her shoulders."[8] Daniel later worked as a graphics editor for The New York Times. She has taught creative writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.[9] From September 2009 to July 2011, she worked in a studio space at the Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.[10] In 2016, Daniel began a role at Google.
She serves as the Expressions Creative Director for Android and Google in addition to her work for the Unicode Consortium.[11][12][13] In 2022, she introduced an emoji font.[14] She is a member of the Art Director's Club.[15] Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators.[citation needed]
Unicode and emoji work
[edit]Daniel is known for her work in emoji development.[16] Her first contribution to Unicode Standard was standardizing gender inclusive representations in emoji.[17][18] She created the Mx Claus, Woman in Tuxedo, Man in Veil and 30 other gender-inclusive emoji.[19] She has authored and co-authored over two dozen emoji including: 🫠🥲🫢🫣🫡🫥😶🌫️😮💨🫨🙂↔️🙂↕️😵💫🫤🥹❤️🔥❤️🩹🩷🩵🩶🫱🫲🫰🫱🏿🫲🏻🫦🧔♂️🧔♀️🧑🦰🧑⚕️🥷🫅🤵♂️🤵♀️👰♂️👰♀️🫄🧑🍼🧑🎄🧑🦯🧑🩰👯🏿💑🏿🫂🪽🐦🔥🪷🪻🍄🟫🫗🪮🪫⛓️💥🫧⚧️[20]
Writing
[edit]Daniel has created or illustrated various books, including the 2015 picture book Space! by Simon Rogers, which presents scientific information about the universe in a series of graphics.[21] In 2016, she published The Origin of (Almost) Everything, which contains an introduction from Stephen Hawking.[22] She illustrated the 2017 book How to Be Human.
Personal life
[edit]In 2015, Daniel gave birth to twins and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.[23]
References
[edit]- ^ "The past, present and future of the emoji, according to Google's Jennifer Daniel". www.itsnicethat.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "Unicode Consortium Announces New Additions to Leadership Team". Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "Jennifer Daniel - Emoji Subcommittee Chair at Unicode Consortium". THE ORG. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f "Imposter Syndrome with Jennifer Daniel". www.superhi.com.
- ^ "Jennifer Daniel's Sketchbook". March 20, 2014. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "Fresh & hungry: Jennifer Daniel: idsgn (a design blog)". idsgn.org. Archived from the original on November 1, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ "At work with… Jennifer Daniel, Bloomberg Businessweek". magCulture.com/blog. Archived from the original on July 6, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ "Gchatting with Jennifer Daniel". Print Magazine. January 11, 2012. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ "Welcome to the Visual Narrative MFA at School of Visual Arts". MFAVN - The School of Visual Arts. December 15, 2014. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "The Pencil Factory: An Oral History". PRINT. January 15, 2013. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ D'Onfro, Jillian (July 7, 2018). "Meet the woman who decides what Google's emoji look like". CNBC. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ Haskins, Caroline. "Perfecting the language of emojis". The Outline. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "Perfecting the language of emojis". The Outline. Archived from the original on April 6, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ Rauwerda, Annie (May 5, 2022). "This retro emoji 'font' brings us back to the beautiful basics". Input. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ The Art Directors Annual 90. The Art Directors Club. December 2011. p. 393. ISBN 978-2-940411-88-7. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
- ^ page, Tanya Basuarchive. "The woman who will decide what emoji we get to use". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ Wilson, Mark (May 7, 2019). "Exclusive: Google releases 53 gender fluid emoji". Fast Company. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ Piñon, Natasha (May 14, 2020). "The designer behind Unicode's first gender-inclusive emoji talks about what's next". Mashable. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ Assunção, Muri (January 30, 2020). "Transgender flag, woman in tuxedo, and a gender-inclusive Santa Claus are among 117 new emojis approved for 2020 release". nydailynews.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ Consortium, Unicode (September 13, 2022). "Unicode Proposals".
- ^ "The multi-faceted practice of designer and illustrator Jennifer Daniel". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
- ^ Miller, Meg (December 8, 2016). "The "Bart And Lisa" Theory Of Information Design". Fast Company. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "Interview with Graphics Editor Jennifer Daniel: "I like it fast, dirty, impulsive, and a little sexy..."". SPD.ORG: Grids. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
