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After graduating from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts with a degree in Interior Design, Esra Gülmen worked as an academic for three years teaching basic design at the same department. Over the years, she established herself as a Design Executive Officer for Europe’s acclaimed advertising agency Ogilvy Germany and as Head of Design at Heimat Berlin before dedicating herself to art.

Esra Gülmen seeks to broaden the meaning of drawing and reinterpret the art form while reminiscing about the "calligrammes" of the early 20th century and responding to them with discourses about the realities of her own century and current movements, popular culture, and activism. She combines numerous daily life senses utilizing language that was recognizable until she used it as a medium, employing everyday objects, paper works, and wearable items. It is always fascinating to observe how she connects a word or a picture to another. The benefit of these typographic creations is that they give life to a visual identity that discusses value, materialism, and consumerism. The viewer is given the opportunity to read and demand her or his own thinking or drawing through the author's words that reflect her images or vice versa. Esra Gülmen also invites us to participate in an experimental study on the psychology of reading and picture perception so that we can decide for ourselves whether or not watching and reading are processes that are more mutually exclusive.