Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello, I'm Yugo, the designer.
This time I went on a business trip to São Paulo, where Colorkrew Brazil is located.
I would like to report on the purpose and the local situation.
First of all, for those who visited this blog without knowing about Colorkrew,
Colorkrew is a company with the mission of "Color Your Work with Excitement" and its vision is to activate the work of workers around the world and realize a creative work environment through the Work SaaS® series.
I am also involved in several of our own products as a designer.
Why did you go to Brazil?
Colorkrew Brazil does not have a designer and is mainly a local sales office.
This is my first time as a designer to support creatives.
Colorkrew Brazil currently consists of four members, including the boss Daniel, three of whom are mainly in sales and customer support.
Anderson, who joined the company most recently, is partly involved in Colorkrew products as head of IT.
I mainly worked with Anderson.
We discussed the creation of Colorkrew Biz maps for customers and the idea of automatically generating AI-powered map models.
I believe this trip has made me determined to deepen this relationship and transform Colorkrew Biz into a more user-friendly product.
I also used my strengths to perform various design tasks.
We discussed the lead Colorkrew Intra, and also took portraits for the members' designs (mainly the future designs of Colorkrew Biz) and new marketing.
The Brazilian team said, "It always rains when Japanese people come on a business trip...", but it was sunny during my business trip!
「Broke the curse!」 I was told! (Laughter)
Also, just before the end of my trip, the officer Maezawa also arrived in São Paulo.
I would like you to see his blog separately, but I think we had a pretty good idea after holding a workshop to create a product from the Brazilian market.
Please look forward to it!!
What is São Paulo like?
Now, I think it is very important for designers to develop their imagination, and I was able to get a lot of stimulation from this business trip.
It was the first time that I spent a business trip alone, completely and only in English, including at my past company.
However, I thought that there were few situations in Brazil (São Paulo) where English was spoken.
I would like you to read the other members' business trip blogs (Vol 1,2,3,4,5English speakers are about 12% of the population, and the ranking is almost the same as in Japan.
São Paulo is not the capital of Brazil, but it is famous as the largest city.
It is ranked 9th in the world megalopolis ranking after New York.
Despite such a big city, members of Brazil have also said that public transportation is weak, and it is basically a car society.
I think the main tool for tourists and business travelers is to use Uber.
Amazingly, you can catch it really quickly, and it's cheap and safe.
It is also known that there are 3 million Japanese Americans living in Brazil, and there is also a Japanese neighborhood called "Liberdage" in São Paulo.
I also visited on a holiday, and it seemed that festivals were often held on holidays, and it was very crowded.
Since the surrounding area is other Asian towns, I had the impression that Liberdage was a base for Asians.
There is also a "sukiya" that will be soothing for Japanese business travelers.
Colorkrew Brazil office moved to a new location in April last year, and I am renting a shared office in a very nice area called Olympia Street.
My hotel was the same, but it feels like a very safe area.
There is also a large shopping mall.
Combined with the climate, I somehow remembered Okinawa.
I was told that the most major street in São Paulo is "Paulista Street", and it looks completely Ginza (laughs).
On weekends, it became a pedestrian street, with bands playing, food stalls, and runners and cyclists exercising freely, which made me feel very peaceful.
There are also plenty of landmarks in the center, such as the Japan House built by Kengo Kuma and the prominent São Paulo Museum of Art.
## Food in Brazil
São Paulo's main city is inland, so I thought that the food was basically meat-eating.
My partner who lives with me is a vegan, so I am basically a vegetarian in Japan, but I was able to enjoy the carnivorous lifestyle for two whole weeks.
Here are some of my favorites.
The national dish known as "Saturday lunch" in Brazil is "feijoada".
It is a typical Brazilian dish made with stewed black beans, pork, beef, etc.
At the restaurant I was taken to, you could eat it in a buffet style with a variety of meats, vegetables, and sauces, which was exquisite.
"Parmegiana", a dish devised by Italian immigrants that combines cheese and cutlets.
I thought this was a taste that was friendly to Japanese people.
The beef cutlet is topped with tomato sauce and crispy Brazilian cheese.
This is a Brazilian teppanyaki.
It is a little different from churrasco, which is famous in Japan, and is completely the same yakiniku style as Japan and Korea, which is grilled on the iron plate in front of you.
I ate a lot of things, but Daniel's barbecue is still the best.
Brazilians who have a private residence usually have a large barbecue set.
The juicy red meat and their attention to doneness is amazing!
Rio!
Well, I rarely have the opportunity to go to Brazil! I volunteered to go on a business trip, but of course I also enjoyed sightseeing during my vacation.
I love traveling abroad, but Brazil will be my 31st trip to the country.
I enjoyed an overnight trip to Rio de Janeiro and was busy visiting famous tourist spots.
There is a reason why I really want to go to Rio, and it has been my dream since I was a child to go see this building called "Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art"!
It was built in 1958 by the legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and is said to have had a variety of influences on Japanese creations.
Although the inside is not large, it is an attractive legendary building with a spaceship-like exterior and a special façade that allows you to climb a ramp to enter the building.
Unfortunately, it was raining on this day, but I was impressed!
I would like to use this experience as a design idea.
After that, I climbed Corcovado Hill with the standard Christ statue and took a walk on Copacabana Beach, which was a short but good experience.
I would like to visit again in the near future during the carnival season.
Corcovado Hill is very crowded. I didn't have time until my flight, so I stayed for 30 minutes...
Conclusion
The above is my two-week business trip, thank you for reading this far.
I'm happy that my work is useful to the Brazilian market, but I think the most valuable thing was the opportunity to get to know all the members in Brazil and to be able to collaborate more with each other in the future.
As a bonus, in fact, after Maezawa and I went on a business trip, the entire Brazilian team came to Japan.
It is also for Colorkrew's semi-annual award ceremony.
The Brazilian team will post about it separately...