about creative consultant, copywriter and web designer Isahrai Azaria
irmacreative is really just me: IsahRai Malachy Azaria.
This portfolio website focuses on web design work but the real irmacreativity comes in finding the balance between beautiful design and strong effective content. I enjoy working with clients to develop the substance of their website as much as creating the pretty stuff that goes around it.
I came to design out of curiosity and a serious bout of insomnia. I never thought I would make a career when I started clicking "view source" to see what what made favorite websites work. After a few years of redesigning my own website every other week, it made sense to share my excitement for the internet and my affinity for clean beautiful design. Setting up my own boutique creative shop empowered me to selectively work with clients who share my passions for art, the environment and community organizing. Working for myself also gives me the flexibility and inspiration to parallel my design work with musical, yogic and activist endeavors.
A need to reestablish balance in my life and some more of that damned curiosity led me to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, in 2004. It was during my 5 years living on the beach and off the beaten path that I fully realized the power of the internet. I developed a website for an artist living in a cabin in Montana, designed a logo for a boutique hotel in Barcelona, edited action papers for Amnesty International and organized interns for the Democratic National Committee all from a hammock under a palapa. An internet connection, fully loaded MacBook and smartphone was all I needed to stay connected with clients and my sense of self.
This year, I decided to take on new adventures and return to the US. The ultimate plan is to settle down in the musical, green, wonderfully weird city of Austin but I'm taking my sweet time getting there. There's no reason not to satisfy my wanderlust when technology gives me the power to change the world, the tools to connect with the world and the freedom to explore the world from a tropical fishing village just as easily as a New York skyscraper, from an airport terminal just as easily as from an office.
My clients make a lot of jokes about never knowing what time zone I am in. Luckily for them, I still suffer from insomnia so I'm pretty much reachable whenever, wherever, they want to find me. (Have Skype, will travel!) Another great source of comedy for my clients is when I tell them what inspires me. I'll often say something like "I was writing a song and I realized that your contact form wasn't working because...." or "I was holding Utrasana in yoga class and got a great idea for your logo!" This makes my clients wonder what I just might think of next... and why! An image I come across while working on a design might inspire a musical composition, writing the dialogue of a new play might facilitate better communication with a client and researching a complex activist issue might open my eyes to a visual approach that I can apply to a complex design need. I've come to understand that working in collaboration with all of my selves is just as important as collaboration with my clients. Once clients realize how my geographic and creative travels serve as the afflatus for their projects, they don't mind the 3 AM emails... but that doesn't stop them from making jokes.
