I am a designer, but as a child, I dreamed of becoming an architect like my father.
I grew up in Campo Grande, MS, in a cozy house filled with drawings, comics, photos, pencils, pens, music, and the vinyl records my mom played every weekend, each album cover more captivating than the last.
My favorite hobby was drawing. I’d spend hours lost in blank pages, recreating my favorite characters from Japanese shows and video games.
As I grew older, I loved watching my father work on his architectural designs. I can still picture him leaning over his drafting table, using a large horizontal ruler suspended by strings, scale rulers, and geometric stencils. He carefully erased pencil marks with a razor blade, treating everything—from delicate tracing paper to fine linework—with precision.
I often played at his desk, exploring his tools. It was exciting to trace shapes with his rulers, precisely following lines with a 0.5mm pencil, and sketching random geometric patterns with his templates.
My focus shifted to the digital realm when I got my first computer. A whole new world unfolded, and I became curious about websites. “How are they made? Can I create one? About what?”
I became fascinated by layouts, typography, color palettes, sizes, and proportions, customizing and analyzing them through source codes.
It didn’t take long for me to discover Design, fall in love with it, learn about other designers, and start creating blogs and personal websites using Photoshop. It felt like the perfect mix of architecture and digital creativity. A natural evolution.
Fortunately, the year I applied for university, the first Design program in my city was launched. I enrolled in Design College and graduated in 2006. While still studying, I began interning at a digital agency, designing websites. This gave me the chance to apply what I was learning to real clients and real-world challenges.
A few years later, I realized that to advance in my career, I needed to move to a larger city with a more mature market, where I could develop further and tackle bigger challenges. In Brazil, the natural choice was SĂŁo Paulo, where I moved in 2011.
I started working at iG, a news portal renowned for democratizing internet access in Brazil and pioneering free internet services. It was, without a doubt, my greatest design school. I was lucky to collaborate with talented professionals in Design, Information Architecture, Illustration, and Development, all of whom played a vital role in shaping my growth as both a designer and a person.
At iG, I learned the importance of treating Design with care and professionalism. I still remember being amazed at how much effort the team put into refining something as simple as a button.
In 2014, I pushed myself further by joining Enjoei as one of its first designers. It was my first startup experience, and over six years there, I gained invaluable knowledge. We built a small but skilled design team, including senior colleagues from iG, and helped the company grow from a seed round to an IPO on the Brazilian market in 2020.
In 2020, I sought a new challenge and joined SĂrio-LibanĂŞs, one of the world’s leading medical centers, during the Covid-19 pandemic. I helped design digital products in a critical time for global health, enabling the institution to provide remote medical care through telemedicine and primary healthcare. At SĂrio-LibanĂŞs, I also had my first opportunity to lead a Design team.
Today, I lead Design at Nilo, a healthtech startup, where we are shaping the future of digital healthcare in Brazil.
Alongside this, I take on freelance design projects, finding joy in staying hands-on. If you have an exciting project, feel free to reach out.
Outside of work, I love analog and digital photography, which I occasionally share on Instagram.
Thank you for stopping by, and if you’ve read this far, perhaps it’s proof that users do read after all.
