BE BRASIL

A Celebration of Contemporary Brazilian Art and Culture

We turned a four-story building in Soho, NYC, into a gallery, bar, store, and play space for a full week. The space and live performances were a demonstration of the many sustainability innovations coming out of Brazil. It also served as a celebration of Brazilian creativity, ingenuity, and style—hosting multiple floors of interactive experiences, demos, talks, performances, and culinary explorations.

For this project, I worked with a Brazilian Creative Director/Designer, Rick Souza.

We were responsible for the event concept and production, in collaboration with leading Brazilian Architects, Guto Requena and Mauricio Arruda.

The Fly Over

This experience was inspired by a fun, interactive floor painting, by my own Mother, Ceramic Artist, Adele Y. Schonbrun. The painting was about the intense feelings we’d had while skiing in the backcountry—standing on a mountaintop cornice, unable to see below it, then leaping into the fresh powder below us. The thrill of that leap gave us the feeling we were flying and was the seed idea for this interactive experience.

Using an Xbox Kinect (pre-Lidar) Visitors were invited to step in front of the 360º interactive video screens, spreading their arms, and fly over 12 cities in Brazil. Visitors could pan left or right, as a bird would, and by lifting and lowering their arms, they could go up or down in altitude. The technology worked seamlessly, and the experience became the anchor attraction of the event.

A Passion for Flavor

The 2nd floor was dedicated to tastings and events. Premium Brazilian wines and cachaças were served along with traditional delicacies by renown Brazilian Chef Alex Atala while talks and live pocket shows happened throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the basement turned into a pop-up store bringing exclusive products and collections from some of Brazil's most famous designers.

The Stories

Six screens told the stories behind some of the biggest Brazilian innovations. We created seven animated films combining vivid imagery with elegant stories to demonstrate how Brazil became one of the biggest players in sustainable development. These materials were also utilized in marketing materials, leading Visitors to the event.

Be Brasil Online

The website was the calling card for this experience, so the design had to bring the richness of the event to the world wide web.

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VR for Racial Equity