My daily life is simple. Waking up early morning, 5:50 am, I prepare myself for a long day. From home to work, two hours riding a train. São Paulo is such a chaotic place during rush hours, subways are complicated, so I grab my phone to study Japanese while travelling.

When I get to work, I barely see time passing by. I use my lunchtime to study game development and work on my projects. After that, start all over again, put on my earphones, there’s work to be done!

At 7pm, it’s time to head for home. Another long commute until I get some rest, another moment to grab a book or keep studying Japanese. This is the black and white part of my life. Things aren’t easy in Brazil, but I hope that my work can bring a smile to people’s face. This is enough to keep me motivated.

But life shines on weekends! On Saturdays I get to see my fiancé, we spend time looking for new restaurants, shopping or playing games. And on Sundays I get to work on personal projects or just relax playing games, watching cartoons/animes or drawing. That’s the colorful part of my routine.

Since my childhood I have been in touch with Japan. I used to play Japanese games as a kid (even without knowing a single word). My father was an owner of an arcade game shop, this brought so much joy to my childhood, I grew up playing and watching animes. Japan’s pop culture is my most precious source of inspiration, I love the vibrant colors, the aesthetic from magazines, the energy from people, the look from daily life, etc.

Talk about your professional background

I have been working with graphic design since 2010 and chosen it because there were no animation or games courses in my city back then. Design was the only course involving drawing that I had.

My career started in 2012, when I was just a (advertising) college student, attending college in the morning, and working during the evenings and night. Three years later (2015) I got a chance to study games and I had to leave my advertising & business course to do game development.

From 2015 to 2018, I got three promotions due to my efforts.! My boss liked me a lot, but it wasn’t easy to work from Sunday to Sunday without vacation. Advertising career in Brazil isn’t a dream, there’s always tons of jobs to do and little time to execute. Working with global brands, I’ve got a recognition prize (but I couldn’t attend the ceremony in France) and my name was finally in the media!

But that wasn’t what I really wanted. Part of my time I spent trying to be an art director, and when I finally got it, I felt empty. And then, a game studio hired me to be a lead designer in 2018, where I worked for one and a half years, and left that job in December 2019 to spend more time with my studies and projects. But, when Brazil appeared on the COVID-19 radar, I had to change my plans and get back to art direction work.

Tell us about your work experience

My career timeline:

2010 Freelancer designer
2012 Designer junior
2016 Senior designer
2017 Art director
2018 Lead artist 2D
2020 Art director

Always working in small studios. Large Brazilian studios consume more time out of life, that’s why I always prefer small ones. And I achieved some highlights, too!

2012 Featured artist (Computer Arts Br magazine)
2017 Best design (Ticket Log sales campaign, France)
2017 Highlighted artist (Cartdge.com)

How did you learn your skills?

All that I know started with my college teachers, I own so much to these people. I never graduated, just got technical degrees, but always had good teachers.

The internet taught me so much, too. I’m always studying new things, trying new stuff. I like to develop personal projects; this helps me a lot to develop new skills and learn something more.

Why did you join Workshift?

I joined Workshift to learn more about the Asian work/business style and to get more money. I found it while searching on Google, and I was glad to join it.

How does freelancing fit your lifestyle?

I start freelancing after getting home from work everyday. It’s been years since I started freelancing, but never got a chance to work only with this. Maybe in the near future I can use all my time to work only with freelance requests.

Since life in São Paulo is extremely expensive, I had to do freelancer work in order to help my family pay the bills, and to get extra money to spend with equipment and fun. After my dad passed away, freelance work always saved us, I had to get used to working two turns.

What are your future plans?

I have a dream to live in Japan and work as a game developer. Everything I do now is focused making this dream come true. So, my future plans involve Workshift as well. I hope to get more jobs here.

Also, I’m saving money to get married with my fiancé (below). Since things are extremely expensive in Brazil, we need to work a lot to earn money, and Workshift is a great source for income.

Impressions of Workshift

I have to admit, I thought I would never get a job on Workshift. There are tons of sites like this in Brazil, and the people are very competitive. And since there are premium users, they get all the visibility.

Then I got my first job on Workshift and now I’m dedicating more time here. It was fun, challenging and a good experience for me. I have great expectations from Workshift from now.

Was it smooth applying for jobs?

Yeah! It was easy to apply and get in touch with people. The site is easy to use!

Do you have any advice for new freelancers?

Use the internet to your advantage. Stop using social media for so long. There’s a lot of good content on the internet to discover. Instead of scrolling feeds or looking for TikTokers, use this time to plan your goals, to watch something that brings you joy, and to learn new things.

And finally, last but not least (certainly not less important) remember make connections with people at the same level as yours. It is always better to have friends and people to share your objectives and jobs. I’m always using help from my friends.