The Lorem to your Ypsum

The Lorem to your Ypsum

Growing up in the birthplace of Helvetica, the Rex peeler and grid systems might suggest a straightforward path to design, but it took me a few non-linear career angles to find my way to graphic design and, ultimately, design leadership.

This non-linear breadth and growth mindset have become my edge, allowing me to understand brands, products, markets, and people with speed, adaptability, and empathy.

I now lead and elevate in-house design teams and help tech companies show up meaningfully by combining data-driven with psychological and emotional insights.

Highlights of my career include building and mentoring proactive teams, crafting visions, implementing strategies, leading brand refreshes and rebrands, and launching campaigns. For startups, industry giants, Fortune 500s, in-house teams, and agencies across many industries like tech, AI, health, travel, or lifestyle...

I had the joy of working as Head of Design & Brand at informed (a B2C media tech startup), Creative Director at Courier Media (Mailchimp, B2C media brand), and Design Director at AllBright (a career network for women in business). I've also collaborated with brands like Samsung, Nike, and Nivea. I'm equally excited about cats and bread, but that's another discussion.

As a mentor and SheSays committee member, I'm passionate about empowering women and non-binary creatives to take on leadership roles. Living with chronic illness has shaped my values, teaching me the importance of empathy, flexibility and wellbeing.

So, if you're looking for a design leader who can unite creativity, strategy and vision to drive business impact – you've come to the right place. 

[Open to permanent and contract opportunities]

Growing up in the birthplace of Helvetica, the Rex peeler and grid systems might suggest a straightforward path to design, but it took me a few non-linear career angles to find my way to graphic design and, ultimately, design leadership.

This non-linear breadth and growth mindset have become my edge, allowing me to understand brands, products, markets, and people with speed, adaptability, and empathy.

I now lead and elevate in-house design teams and help tech companies show up meaningfully by combining data-driven with psychological and emotional insights.

Highlights of my career include building and mentoring proactive teams, crafting visions, implementing strategies, leading brand refreshes and rebrands, and launching campaigns. For startups, industry giants, Fortune 500s, in-house teams, and agencies across many industries like tech, AI, health, travel, or lifestyle...

I had the joy of working as Head of Design & Brand at informed (a B2C media tech startup), Creative Director at Courier Media (Mailchimp, B2C media brand), and Design Director at AllBright (a career network for women in business). I've also collaborated with brands like Samsung, Nike, and Nivea. I'm equally excited about cats and bread, but that's another discussion.

As a mentor and SheSays committee member, I'm passionate about empowering women and non-binary creatives to take on leadership roles. Living with chronic illness has shaped my values, teaching me the importance of empathy, flexibility and wellbeing.

So, if you're looking for a design leader who can unite creativity, strategy and vision to drive business impact – you've come to the right place. 

[Open to permanent and contract opportunities]

Portrait headshot of Katja Alissa Mueller sitting on stool

Data, but make it delightful

19+

years in the industry

10+

years in leadership and management

5+

direct reports

+ freelancers
+ external agencies

90+

brands impacted

900%

membership growth
in first month after app launch

28M

OOH impressions for
pro-bono campaign

#1

German App Store ranking 
on launch day

100+

people mentored

0

tolerance for lactose

Selected brands and agencies I had the joy to work with:

Key Expertise

How I work.
What I bring to the table.
How I build the table.

How I work.
What I bring to the table.
How I build the table.

How I work.
What I bring to the table.
How I build the table.

Design leadership & vision
I lead with a player-coach mentality, champion the team's vision and collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional leaders. I shape strategy to deliver impactful, purpose-driven work that drives action, delights and guides company direction.

Team building & culture
I build trust, inclusion, and high performance through empathy, autonomy and mentorship. I create proactive teams that thrive in a collaborative, growth-focused environment.

User-centric strategy & innovation
I craft data and research-driven design, brand, and product strategies that result in experiences users can deeply relate to.

Cross-disciplinary expertise
I bring expertise across channels, platforms, and creative disciplines, connecting the dots between design, branding, marketing, UI/UX, and beyond.

Psychology
I apply design and human psychology – like habit-building, colour perception, or complexity reduction – to foster deeper emotional connections.

Design ops & management
I simplify complexity, streamline workflows and processes, and build scalable systems to enhance consistency, creativity, and impact through knowledge sharing.

Craft & consistency
I set and elevate design standards, focusing on high quality, usability, and thoughtful decisions. It's all about the details.

Leadership & community contributions

Mentor

· ADPList: 2024-present
· SheSays – Who’s your Momma?: 2022-present
· The Dots: 2021-2024
· Kerning the Gap: 2020–21
· Ladies, Wine & Design: 2020
· D&AD New Blood Shift: 2019–20

Click to book a free mentoring session with me on ADPList

Award juries

· ADC: 2025
· The Lovie Awards: 2024
· The AdForum PHNX: 2024
· ADC Members Choice Awards: 2024
· DMAs: 2017/22/23/24 
· Creative Circle: 2019/20/21
· D&AD New Blood: 2020

+ won a few awards along the way myself.

Testimonials — What others say about me

"Having had the opportunity to work with numerous creatives and designers over the years, Katja is truly a stand-out talent. She has a strong vision and impeccable taste backed up by strategic thought and executed with wonderful leadership. She perfectly bridges the physical and the digital worlds and was instrumental in helping us taking a very physical business digital through the website and the launch of an app. And that’s without mention of the timelines we were working to! Considered and calm, while being fast-paced. Empathetic and collaborative, while being a strong leader. She’s a joy to work with. A joy to collaborate with. And it’s joyful to consume all she does."

Kirsty Hathaway — Executive Creative Director

✴︎

"I loved working with K on all things brand and marketing at informed. She had clear vision, transparent leadership, and always on-point feedback. She made collaboration easy and fun, pushing us all to level up our creativity. Joined-up leadership across different business areas is hard, but K made it look easy—she made sure that clear creative direction was imbued in every touchpoint and stopped work from getting siloed."

Chloe Sawyer — Freelance Copywriter & Creative

✴︎

"Katja was an amazing Head of Brand & Design. She not only executed a new brand strategy for our B2C brand informed that took the brand to an entirely new level in quality but also brought in her strategic thinking, and her very methodical approach and mentored the design team. Without her, we would have not been able to reach this excellence that our users love about informed."

Ben Mateev — Co-Founder & CEO

✴︎

"I feel so lucky to have worked under K's leadership at Informed. The experience was truly invaluable for me. I admired K's incredible ability to empower the team most. She has a unique talent for mentoring and guiding people, which also helped me reach my full potential. One of the things that stood out to me about K was her dedication to leading product design. Her strategic vision and attention to detail were excellent and played a vital role in driving the success of our projects. K's leadership style is genuinely inspiring. She is always there to guide, support, and encourage everyone around her. Her approachable nature and willingness to listen have made her an exceptional leader." 

Irina Altuna — Senior Product Designer / UX Lead

✴︎

"Katja has been a brilliant leader at informed, she was a role model for the team, had a lot of great initiatives and she was the one pushing the product to its highest potential. I really enjoyed working with Katja and hope to work with her again in the future." 

Maria Mezher — VP People & Advisor 

✴︎

"I consider myself fortunate to have collaborated with Katja during my time as a freelance designer within Informed's marketing team, particularly during an exciting period of new branding implementation. Katja's approach to communication and leadership felt very open, transparent, and a welcoming tone, instantly making me feel integrated into the team dynamic. Seeing in first person her effortless yet effective navigation through cross-departmental tasks was truly inspiring. Working alongside her was a real joy and definitely one of the better experiences of my career!"

Luca Brandovardi — Multidisciplinary Visual Designer

✴︎

"Katja was my mentor for 6 months via Who's Your Momma Mentorship Program (WYMM) and I truly believe she was the best thing to have happened to me at the time. She is honest, sincere, trustworthy, positive, and an expert at what she does. She helped me navigate challenging scenarios and addressed my self doubt with utmost clarity and patience. Anyone would be lucky to have her as a mentor and is highly recommended."

Malini Rao — Digital Designer, UX/UI

✴︎

K — design, leadership, vision, strategy

Based in London.
© Katja Alissa Mueller, forever

Based in London.
© 2019, Katja Alissa Mueller

Based in London.
© 2019, Katja Alissa Mueller