I see you’re getting straight to business. I like it!

Why you should hire me:

• Experience. I’ve been doing this a loooong time. About 25 years. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve done a lot. Chances are, I’ve come across a similar problem before, which means high-quality, efficient results.
• Directness. When you hire me, you get me. You’re not passed off to a junior design team. And there’s no account manager. Just experienced me working through your problem without communication gaps.
• Magic. My curiosity to dig into problems, paired with an execution-agnostic approach, often leads to unexpected and delightful results. No fairy dust or secret potions, but sometimes it feels like it.

Here are a few good reasons:

• You want the agency treatment. If you’re into catered lunches, a Trademarked Process™, and a big team in a shiny office with impractical seating, you won’t get that from me. Some folks find comfort in structure, hierarchy, and the illusion of multiple specialists working in parallel. You should hire an agency.
• You have an aggressive timeline and I’m already booked. Unfortunately, my time is a finite resource. You’ll need to look elsewhere.
• You already know exactly what you want. If you have a specific execution in mind and just need someone to operate software without thinking about the problem, you can find someone who will do a fine job at a lower rate.
• You need a specialist. If you have a narrow, well-defined task that’s best handled by someone with expert-level skill in a specific discipline, you should hire them.
• You don’t value design. I won’t waste your time trying to convince you why design matters. Just use Canva.
• I’m not for you. If you get me, you should hire me. If you don’t, that’s fine. You should hire someone else.

At the moment … yes!

I some availability in May and more in June. Let’s set up a quick meeting to see if there’s a fit.

I work at the intersection of strategy, experience design, and visual design.

I gravitate toward big, messy, interesting problems that need a curious generalist. Especially ones that are tightly connected to the ✨brand experience✨.

Think: onboarding flows, mission-critical interactions, or high-impact moments that shape how people feel about your product.

Yeah.

When aspiring freelance designers ask me for the most important advice on building a successful career, I tell them: “Do what you say you’re going to do, when you said you were going to do it.” I live by that.

Indeed! It’s just me.

If I subcontract anything, it’s only because that person can do it better than I can. And I’ll always be upfront about it.

~

Side rant: A thing irks me about agencies is you talk to experienced folks during the pitch, but then get handed off to junior staff who lack context.

When you hire me, you get me. From start to finish.

Most projects fall into one of three structures:

• Hourly: Best for short-term or open-ended work. I bill at my full hourly rate.
• Retainer: Great for ongoing collaboration. You get a discounted rate in exchange for committing to hours up front.
• Per project: Ideal for clearly scoped work with defined goals and deliverables. We agree on a flat fee at the start.

We can figure out which one suits you best.

Sheesh! Let’s leave something to the imagination.

The truth is: it depends. I sometimes offer sweetheart deals to non-profits and adorable small businesses.

My starting rate is: $250/hour. I also offer retainers and fixed project pricing.

Let’s see if we’re a fit, and then work out the details.

I’m a big fan of single-page agreements.

If it slips into legalese, we’re probably not starting from a place of clarity and trust.

Yup!

Not exactly.

I don’t love the idea of forcing a problem into a cookie-cutter process.

Instead, I’d rather work with you to clearly define the problem and design a plan to solve it. For larger or more complex challenges, that might include a dedicated discovery phase.

Some projects in my portfolio took years. Others came together in a couple days.

I like keeping a mix.Big projects lead to big outcomes. Small projects keep my dopamine-fueled brain happy. And my skills sharp.

Sort of!

There’s also HTML, SVGs, a font, and some images in the mix. But yeah, no, yeah. No javascript.

I’m not a developer.

I guess you could say I’m what Brad Frost calls a “front front-end developer.” I’m comfortable with HTML and CSS, less so with javascript or js frameworks.

I hadn’t developed anything from scratch in a few years, so when I decided to update my site I wanted to use it as an opportunity to explore some of the newer, shiny things you can do with CSSs.

The entire site is a hand-coded, single-page, ~120k HTML file with vanilla CSS in the <head>. No prepocessors. No frameworks. No npm. No CMS. No Google Analytics. No tag managers. No tracking pixels. No js. No gluten. 💯

I won’t pretend to know enough to soapbox about javascript. (Hey man. I’m, like, just a designer.) But Lighthouse sure seems to like my site.

And look! The back button works and the URLs are always in sync.

I’m working on it! Stay tuned …

jaan · hen · ree · muh · lr

Over 150 years ago in Alsace-Lorraine, our family name had an umlaut (ü). The umlaut was lost in the move to signal decay, assimilation, and time. With the punctuation change also came a pronunciation change: MUH · lr instead of MOO · lr.

In 2006, I started using the umlaut as a nod to family history but mostly because it looks like a smiley face ◡̈

I made a stylized “ü” my logo because my goal is to make u happy.

I pronounce my last name MUH · lr, despite what the umlaut suggests. The ¨ is optional.

Colors have the most impact in the context of other colors, which makes it hard to choose just one.

I could exploit a loophole and say “rainbow” 🌈, like Etta (age 6) says.

But if I were forced to pick just one, I’m quite fond of the “web safe” #00CCCC■.

Well, that’s obnoxious to assume.

Actually, we did IVF and knew our youngest was a girl even before pregnancy.

I love being a girl dad!

Did I mention I’m celiac? How about you ask me about my gluten-free diet?

Not bad at all!

I’ve been gluten-free my entire life!

My mom was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue Disease in 1977. When I reacted to gluten as a baby, she put me on the diet right away.

So my mom, three siblings, oldest daughter, and nephews are gluten-free. Family holidays are amazing!

Things certainly got a lot easier in the early-2010s when the diet became trendy. Before then, we had to buy very expensive bread and pasta at weird-smelling grocery stores.

So yeah. I was gluten-free before (and after) it was cool.

Wow! You have a lot of questions. I am glad you are so curious!

Send me an email and I’ll get your question answered as soon as possible:
answers@johnhenrymuller.com