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Visions of Brahma

We created Visions of Brahma as a portfolio and design service website in 2009. The name came from the visionary nature of our work and our resonance with the Hindu Creator deity Brahma, who represents students, artists, the youthful and those that create. For a time it was a good representation of our work online, and we often developed the site to make it better.

This post is a tribute to the website we used for over a year before discovering our true brand in The Astrarium, and an overview of some of the interesting designs we came up with along the way.

As many designers know, the most difficult projects are the ones for yourself. Finding the right business name, brand, and image is very important, and it took us quite some time to find The Astrarium, which is just the right name to describe what we do. Before the Astrarium, there was Visions of Brahma and A Quiet Forest. See our post about A Quiet Forest’s Lifecycle to see some of our older websites.

Here are the various incarnations of Visions of Brahma durings its heyday, leading up to the creation of the Astrarium in April 2010.

Copyright Michael McCracken

This was one of the first layouts, mostly focused on web design services but also featuring artwork in the form of products. This layout, while still quite nice, was a bit too expansive. We set out to create something more grounded and contained.

Copyright Michael McCracken

This version, still largely focused on web design services, used a new background image that found its way into many incarnations of this site. It still needed some improvement though.

Copyright Michael McCracken

At this point in the process, we crafted the new categories browsing method we use now on this web site. At the time we had five categories, and a layout somewhat similar to my site today.

Copyright Michael McCracken

A home page design we created with a new and more vibrant version of the background image, to make the site pop more.

Copyright Michael McCracken

Final version of the home page design with new background and categories browsing, and the last one to be used before we developed the concept for The Astrarium.

If you’re thinking about hiring us for your own web site, and this article turned you off, don’t worry. We don’t usually work like this. Many of our clients say the layout we come up with is spot on the first time, and the revisions are up to you from there on out. It’s just that it’s very difficult to create a personal web site at times, and we also struggled with how to organize the site, as we were creating something totally new. This was a process that evolved over several weeks into the site you see today. We were guided in just the right ways to make each change in layout and organization, and it turned out beautifully.

A Quiet Forest Lifecycle

Back in 2008 while we were studying abroad in Thailand, we launched our new website A Quiet Forest. It was a portfolio of our work and a blog of our travels. We also offered web design and other services through the site.

As many designers know, the most difficult projects are the ones for yourself. Finding the right business name, brand, and image is very important, and it took us quite some time to find The Astrarium, which is just the right name to describe what we do. Before the Astrarium, there was Visions of Brahma and A Quiet Forest.

Here are the various incarnations of A Quiet Forest durings its heyday, as we attempted to find just the right look to present our brand on the web.

Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken

Anti Self-Portrait

For my Constructed Realities class I was assigned to create a series of self-portraits of things that I’m not. As is my custom, I had to do something wild and metaphysical!

My series of prints were two pairs, one normal photograph, and one energetic representation made in Photoshop. Which is the real me, the ephemeral physical body, or the being of light?

Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken

These were taken on the beaches of Ban Krud in Southern Thailand. I’m playing my brandy new 7 metal singing bowl and feeling the vibes. Off in the distance is the beautiful Wat Thongchai with a massive golden Buddha overlooking the ocean. Incidentally, that is exactly where the next photos were taken.

Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken

Two individuals in a photograph. Are they separate beings, or do their energies intertwine with those floating around in the area, in this case the energies of this pure and sacred temple?

Self-Portrait Series

In my Digital Imaging class back in 2007, our first assignment was to create a self portrait series. I created five images of myself practicing various meditation techniques. Unfortunately I don’t have all the digital copies at the moment, so I will post the other 4 later.

Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken
Copyright Michael McCracken