Kathy Mueller

Kathy Mueller

Kathy Mueller

  • Lew Klein College of Media and Communication

    • Advertising and Public Relations

      • Chair

      • Associate Professor

Biography

Kathy Mueller is an award-winning visual communication designer with experience in advertising, brand identity, publication design, and exhibition design. Her work has been recognized by leading industry organizations such as the Art Directors Club, Type Directors Club, HOW International, and PRINT.

She has served as a senior designer on four editions of Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler, a widely respected guide for professionals in design, marketing, and business.

Mueller’s professional practice includes work with mission-driven organizations and women-owned businesses. Recent projects include marketing for COAL + ICE, an immersive climate-focused exhibition at the Kennedy Center, and a bilingual publication for Caring Across Generations that supports caregivers with accessible information and resources.

In addition to client work, Mueller maintains a self-initiated creative practice that bridges design and scholarship. She is co-founder of United States for Abortion, a collaborative project that reimagines the visual language of reproductive rights and has been featured in art exhibitions, academic conferences, and feminist media.

Across all her work, Mueller is interested in how design and advertising shape cultural narratives and how creative communication can contribute to more inclusive public discourse. Through critically engaged pedagogy, she examines how advertising can both challenge and reinforce dominant ideologies, and how advertising education can cultivate ethical, socially conscious practitioners.

She began teaching at Moore College of Art & Design in 2007 and joined the faculty at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication in 2010, where she is now Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations. Mueller holds an MFA in Graphic and Interactive Design from the Tyler School of Art and continues to contribute to the professional design community through select client work and organizational service.

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

ADV 2001

Intermediate Digital Design Tools for Advertising

Undergraduate

ADV 3052

Art Direction I: Concept & Layout

Undergraduate

ADV 5504

Visual Communication and Branding

Graduate

Education

Education

Field

School

MFA

Graphic and Interactive Design

Temple University Tyler School of Art

BFA

Graphic Design

Moore College of Art & Design

 

Awards

VENUE

AWARD

DATE

Graphis Design Annual

Silver Award

2024

American Advertising Awards, Philly Metro

Silver ADDY

2023

Communication Arts Design Annual

Finalist

2020

Design Incubation

Educator Award for Service

2019

How International Awards

Excellence Award

2019

Klein College

Creative Excellence Faculty Award

2017

Graphis New Talent Annual

Gold Award

2015

PRINT Regional Design Annual

Excellence Award

2015

Type Directors Club 60th Annual

Typographic Excellence Award

2014

Art Directors Club 93rd Annual

Merit Award

2014

 

Group Gallery Exhibitions

M(other)ing, Perspective Gallery, Virginia Tech, 2024.

Visual Voice, Roy C. Moore Gallery, University of North Georgia, 2023.

Looking Good, MetroLab Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, 2020.

Philadelphia Design Awards, Huddle Gallery, AIGA Philadelphia, 2019.

We the Women, Weidner Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design; Kismet Manayunk; African American Museum; John H. Baker Gallery, West Chester University, 2019–2022.

Best in Show, MSU Visual Arts Center Gallery, Mississippi State University, 2016.
SeeHER, Graphic Design Commons, Rhode Island School of Design, 2016.

 

Publications

Mueller, K. (2024). Advertising. In A. Wheeler & R. Meyerson (Eds.), Designing Brand Identity: An essential guide for the whole branding team (6th ed., pp. 236–237). John Wiley & Sons.

Mueller, K. (2023). This beer is boysen [Case study] (pp. 180–185), Bold women and beer [Case study] (pp. 268–275), & Equality cake [Case study] (pp. 322–323). In K. Jimenez-Elliott (Ed.), The Gravity of Typography:. Cognella Press.

Mueller, K. (2017). Cocktails against cancer [Case study]. In A. Wheeler (Ed.), Designing Brand Identity: An essential guide for the whole branding team (5th ed., pp. 236–237). John Wiley & Sons.