I started up my own little freelance business in 1994 and named it «Art Direction Stacy Müller» ….. because 1) this explained best who I was and what I did and 2) names that start with the letter «A» are at the top of some lists. 🙂
Small jobs came in thanks to friends and contacts from the advertising world. A colleague of my husband asked me to help out with a messy letterhead situation at their place of work – which led to the re-launch of the company’s corporate design as well as their annual reports, signage for their offices, and all sorts of printed goodies. Acquaintances that were made while volunteering for a local daycare center led to further projects in architectural signage as well as brochures and reports for several departments of the local universities. Other friends founded their own businesses and needed logos, flyers, signage etc. Old colleagues from the advertising days teamed up to manage interesting accounts for the local police department, construction companies and business networks. Friends of friends introduced me to others who invited me to join their networks for complex and fulfilling projects.
And so it went… Through all areas of daily life I met future collaborators and created working friendships with talented and fun people that resulted in interesting and rewarding work.
In 2003 as well as in 2006 I was hit with personal health setbacks and was forced to slow down a bit. Due to chronic back pain I became a standing desk worker and learned to take breaks often in order to offset the painful rigidity of computer work. Two years later I suffered a stroke, which forced me to make the choice to separate myself from my more stressful clients and activities. I did continue to work with the type of clients that allowed a slower pace and for many years, I did a little design work and taught Tai Chi and Qigong classes on the side.
Ten years later I found myself losing joy and momentum with the design projects and thinking about possibilities for change. Not surprisingly, I missed the pressure and excitement of the old days, as well as the intense teamwork and camaraderie. And so I started to look around for another form of employment and found interesting and rewarding work in a completely different field!
At the end of 2017 I closed down «Art Direction Stacy Müller» and now only do «freebies» for friends and family..
Here’s a PDF with the pages from my old website
(anno 2013).
And here’s a very short CV in the form of a life timeline.
