PORTFOLIO

Amy E. Mueller

CONTACT

Name: Amy Mueller

Phone: 503.956.0083
Website: amyemueller.com
Address: 228 West 1st North

St. Anthony, ID 83445

Web Page
Event Ad
Flier

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Stationary
Logos
Montage
Brochure
Photodesign
Web Page
Event Ad
Flier
Photos

STATIONARY
DESCRIPTION

Stationary and business cards for the company Idea Sprout that
does business plan consultations.

DATE

November 8, 2015

PROCESS

I used Illustrator to design the logo using the pen, shape and line
tools. I then transferred the logo to InDesign to create a stationary.
I applied an opaque green background keeping with the growing
feel and created a letter head with a purchased font face. The
image in the corner is a piece of the logo enlarged and set down
to create unity throughout the piece. It took a bit to determine the
correct weighted font face and stroke, changing them both to be
heavier in weight gave the piece more polish.
The concept is that this company, Idea Sprout, helps group entrepreneurs ideas into a business plan. The light bulb is representative
of an idea and the sprout growing within is their idea coming to life
through the aide of the business.
A person who has an idea for a business but needs help writing a
business plan for funding.
I used the group and ungroup a lot in this design as I scaled and
tried additional options within the logo.

MESSAGE

AUDIENCE
LESSON
COLOR

Monochromatic, Green

FONT

Title Name & Category: Centuma Regular, Sans Serif

Copy Name & Category: Centuma Thin, Sans Serif

LOGOS
DESCRIPTION

A logo design, grayscale, and reverse white for the company Fidget Faddle,
Sensory Products.

DATE
PROCESS

November 1, 2015
I used Illustrator to with main use of the pen and shape tools. I used the pen tool to
design many parts of the bees. I used used the eraser to erase parts of the ellipse
paths. I originally created 3 different designs and this design was voted as the
best. I refined the logo by placing the text within a white space a created to make
the text feel like it was part of the logo. I used the Ebrima type face as it had the
same sort of weight as the ellipses did.

MESSAGE

The logo represents the energy of the brain of someone with autism. Some
people describe it as feel like a beehive is in their brain. Constant activity. From
an outsiders point of view, a hive may seem like chaos with bees everywhere,
but in reality, a hive is working in a logical progression towards a purpose. The
logo represents that positve aspect of autism while providing products to help
with that energy: weighted vests, stimming objects, and things to fidget with. I
used blue as it is a calming color often associated with the autistic community.

AUDIENCE

Adults with autism or parents of children with autism who would benefit from
having items to either fidget with, or weighted products that help to calm.

LESSON

How to use the pen tool. What an amazing tool to control curves precisely. Also,
how to navigate Illustrator and create full pieces out of combining shapes.

COLOR

Monochromatic, Blues

FONT

Embrima, Sans Serif

MONTAGE
DESCRIPTION

A spiritually influenced montage using Photoshop using multiple elements, filters,

blending, and masking.

DATE

October 25, 2015

PROCESS

I used Photoshop to begin with an 8.511 texture I got from textures.com.

Originally I wanted to use a fire background, as I was trying to emphasis Babylon
or Hell. When I saw the dead grass texture, I saw that it was a perfect fit for the
mood I was trying to create with the piece. I put a mask on the grass.
I then used the lasso tool to capture the woman figure in the art piece with
100pt feathering to help her seamlessly fade with the background. I resized her,
making sure to keep her in proportion by holding down shift. By using the brush
tool, I was able to create a soft white effect because of the mask to bring the
pixels together from both images. For the text, I used font I found on the internet
for free called Death Font, which seemed appropriate. I wanted a bold, heavy,
font with serifs. I was able to give the text some depth and interest by using the
Inner Shadow and Drop Shadow effect. Drop shadow can look a bit cheesy, but I
used it to give a nice black spread under the letters so that it would be better seen.
For the second line of text, I used the effects of Outer Glow and Drop Shadow to
again make it more visually interesting and easier to read.

MESSAGE

Once you give in to vices, they begin to control you and you have less of yourself
in your own control. The faceless woman would make a person stop and
consider the message.

AUDIENCE

All teens and adults since we are all susceptible to vices that impede our spiritual
growth.
I learned how to appropriately mask so that the pixels work nicely together.

LESSON
FILTERS &
COLORS
FONT

White filter mask applied to the dead grass with the picture of the woman then
placed over. Color scheme and color names: Complementary: Red, White, Black,
and a Lighter Green shading around the woman.
Title Name &

BROCHURE
DESCRIPTION

A two sided (duplex) folding brochure

DATE

December 6, 2015

PROCESS

I started by creating a traditional tri-fold brochure in Adobe InDesign. I choose

teal and tan for my colors because they are calming colors that represent the
serenity of yoga. I was able to pull the teal from the cover yogis shirt with the
eyedropper tool and implement it in varies opacities through the piece.
For the front cover I shifted the photo down to make room for the title to lie on the
1/3 line which then required me to use the clone stamp tool to repeat the wood
background vertically. For the logo, I used Illustrator to combine typeface with
a yogi in warrior pose that I inserted into the O. The yogi was created using
the line tool. On the inside flap, I used the Quick Selection Tool and the Magnetic
Lasso Tool to outline and crop the yogi in pidgeon pose. After placing her in my
InDesign brochure, I used the text-wrap feature to have the words flow around
her. On the inside partition of the brochure, I continued my teal and tan theme
while using white bars to add variety. Through the ellipse tool, I created two
circles, one in which I placed an image inside of. I created shapes on either side
of the ellipse tool and place photos within to fame them in those parameters.
Throughout the body copy I used various portions of the typeface to create
texture. On Illustrator I pulled out the warrior-posed yogi and increased his size
then placed him within InDesign as a watermark. The large watermark and the
repetition of him throughout the piece created unity.

MESSAGE
AUDIENCE

An advertising piece for a yoga studio intended to entice readers to attend class.

LESSON
COLORS

How to properly cut out an image then do text wrap around it.

FONT

Title Name & Category: Myraid Pro, Sans Serif

Copy Name & Category: Georgia, Oldstyle

Mostly females aged 23-60 who are interested in exercise and relaxation.

Analogous, teal and tan

PHOTO DESIGN

DESCRIPTION

A foray into non-destructive editing in PhotoShop

DATE

October 18, 2015

PROCESS

For this design I utilized Adobe Photoshop. I practiced non-destructive editing

by creating layers at every step. I added basic edits of adjusting levels, vibrancy,
selective color, the sharpening tool, and the dodge tool. I knew I was going to
do a full bleed design, so I wanted to incorporate an original photo that would
accommodate this specification. My using the circles and diagonal swatches
as design elements, I unified the piece with the spokes and wheel in the photo.
Originally I had the color names on a diagonal, but by changing them to following
the arc of the circle design element, it added more cohesiveness to the project.

MESSAGE

An art piece embracing the wagon wheel and western living.

AUDIENCE

People in my rural town in Idaho who love all things western.

LESSON

How to accomplish non-destructive editing.

COLORS

Monochromatic: Brick

FONT

Title Name & Category: Rockwell Regular, Oldstyle

Copy Name & Category: Rockwell Bold, Oldstyle

WEB PAGE
DESCRIPTION

A display of my html and css skills combined with design skills.

DATE

November 22, 2015

PROCESS

To continue with my logo design, I used Adobe Illustrator to adjust my logo that
I designed with pen, shape and line tools. I pulled a single leaf out of my design
and saved it as a .png to be used for the bullets points to contribute to a repetitive
design element. To incorporate the leaves as bullets, I used CSS to set the type to:
none. After, I used CSS to link the .png image of the leaf. Since I already had the
.png made, I included it as a favicon as well to give the page more polish. I had
the header and the Summary of Process echo the monochromatic logo by using
green and white for the text. Tools Used: Illustrator, Photoshop, Notepad++.

MESSAGE

Idea Sprout can take your idea and turn it into a growing business.

AUDIENCE

People who have a business idea but are not sure what to do next with a business
plan or funding and need an advisor. The audience would ideally be someone
who has the financial capability to hire an advisor before the business is
profitable.

LESSON

How to incorporate my own design as a bullet point. It was fun to design the leaf
bullet point myself in Illustrator, then code it into my web page design.

COLOR

Monochromatic-Green: Light Green #b6d6be; Darker Green #288e43; White

FONT

Title Name & Category: Georgia, Oldstyle

Copy Name & Category: Trebuchet MS, Helvetica, sans-serif;

EVENT AD
DESCRIPTION

A flyer advertising for a plant sale benefiting a local park.

DATE

October 11,, 2015

PROCESS

I used Word to take my scanned image and add text and design elements (the
line with leaf) on top of the photo. Once I located an image thought about which
layout I should use. I considered laying the text over the entire picture with the
plant picture being opaque, and several other ideas. I decided that the way to best
use the photo was to treat the bark of the tree as white space and use to insert
type to balance the vibrant green of the plants. Because the repetitious leaves
take up a lot of the artistic space, I wanted the words to stand out by being a
simplistic white that was stark against the dark brown. The leaf and line design
element unite both parts of the photo.

MESSAGE

Influence community members to attend a plant sale that benefits the local park.

AUDIENCE

Members of the community.

LESSON

How to insert design elements to unify design projects and properly scan images
in for the appropriate resolution while not being too large of a file.

COLOR

Analogous

FONT

Title Name & Category: Lucida Bright, Oldstyle

Copy Name & Category: Gulim, Sans Serif

FLIER
DESCRIPTION

Flier advertising a conference whose audience would be graduating seniors.

DATE

October 3, 2015

PROCESS

My first step with this project was to think of the audience (graduating seniors)
and where they would encounter this piece (probably hanging on a hallway at
college). From that, I sketched out several options that would grab attention while
students were walking past in addition to making the most important information prominent. Grouping is essential for quick reading, so I was sure to put like
items together. After settling on a final sketch, I used InDesign to implement my
design. I made sure there was a natural flow to the piece and left room for the
items to breathe in the white space. I used the Gestalt principle by adding angles
to the banners since the logo has an angular V.

MESSAGE

Influence graduating seniors to improve their skills by attending the Graduate

Leadership Conference.

AUDIENCE

Soon-to-be graduating college students.

LESSON

Using right and left justification to further emphasize the flow of the piece.

FONT

Font Name & Category: Franklin Gothic Heavy, Sans Serif

Century Schoolbook, Oldstyle

PHOTOS
DESCRIPTION

Demonstarte concepts of outside light, inside light, foreground, background,

composition in thirds, and compisition in lead room.

DATE

October 14, 2015

PROCESS

For the outside light, I made sure to focus on the sky as to not wash out the color.
I was able to enhance the colors of the fields in Photoshop so that it more closely
match the reality that I was seeing. For the light inside, I had to be attentive as to
when great light came streaming onto my window bench. The natural light made
for a beautiful vibrant glow on the teacups. Through Photoshop, I was able to use
the sharpening tool to make the image more crisp. The foreground and background focus photos proved to be the most difficult. I used a Nikon Coolpix L105
so it does not have manual settings. By walking close to the sign and holding the
shutter halfway and backing up to a good framing I was able to blur the background. I then switched to a landscape mode and focused on the playground so
that it was more clear and the sign was more blurry. While having my son play
out at the sand dunes, I saw a perfect opportunity to try to frame him in a third
composition. In the past I would have centered all subjects, but I can now see that
this composition feels more professional. For my second composition, lead room,
my daughter was sitting on a swing and I was able to capture her looking in
towards the center and framed her to the extreme left to allow lead room.
I learned a lot about photography through this activity. I found myself paying
attention to many more details then I usually do in my daily life. Things like shadows, where light is coming from, how close I am to an object required quite a bit
of my attention. All of these items create quality photos.
The back portion of the brochure I wanted to have some visual interest, but did
not want anything competing with the contact information for attention. I applied the same teal color with the eyedropper tool, but applied a gradient to it.