Digibee Employee Highlight Series: Felipe Pessoa, Senior Graphic Designer

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with the lovely Felipe Pessoa – a passionate artist, athlete, urbanite, nature-enthusiast, and wellness guru. Read about how Felipe’s diverse interests and experiences have shaped his unique perspective and creative approach to his work as Senior Graphic Designer at Digibee.

Why Digibee?

Three main factors brought Felipe to Digibee. First, after his 10 year career in advertising, he was starting to feel creatively depleted, stressed, and unsure of his purpose. Seeking a change, he began exploring other career paths that would allow him to use his skills in a new way. Secondly, Felipe had always wanted to be part of building a brand. In advertising, you move quickly from one campaign to the next, never really getting the chance to dive deep into branding work. And third, Felipe wanted the flexible schedule and location afforded to remote work. When a former coworker of his saw an opening at Digibee that checked all of Felipe’s boxes, he decided to apply.

As a start-up, Digibee was at the right stage to offer the perfect opportunity for Felipe. He believed in the product Digibee was bringing to the industry and as the first in-house graphic designer on the team, he could lay the groundwork visually, creatively, and focus on shaping Digibee’s brand identity while challenging himself and expanding his skills. Remote work was also extremely important to Felipe. He could go to the office and see people, but also had the flexibility to work from home. Felipe is originally from Rio de Janeiro, a beachy sea-side city and currently lives in the urban São Paulo. Although Felipe loves the vibrancy of urban life, he feels the pull to return to being closer to the sea and nature. (Similarly, I always feel the pull to be closer to my coffee maker). The remote option means his work doesn’t have to impact where he lives so significantly. 

Felipe has just passed the year-and-a-half mark at Digibee, and he hasn’t looked back. He says joining Digibee re-ignited his faith in the creative process.

Life at Digibee

Being part of building Digibee’s brand has been every bit as rewarding as Felipe had hoped. He’s involved in each stage of the planning and process and the input and impact he’s afforded on content and visual elements is truly exciting work. He also finds it is very freeing creatively to work on a newer, modern brand. At Digibee, Felipe doesn’t feel forced to incorporate modern aesthetic trends onto designs just because it is the hype, saying “I love that at Digibee we are planning and building all the stages of the brand to be solid and fresh.” 

Digibee may only be six years young, but the brand has already made a significant impact in the integration space. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done. According to Felipe, the challenge lies in finding the perfect methods to transmit Digibee’s value to their target audiences. Digibee is growing fast and the team remains focused on providing the best possible integration platform. This means constantly changing and adapting to the needs of their users, the market, and the industry. As Felipe says, “we know who we are. Our mission, values, and essence are still the same. But, to stay ahead, we have to keep changing paths and directions. So, we have to be flexible, willing to adapt, rethink, and keep improving.” Despite the challenges, Felipe believes that Digibee is putting all the right pieces in place to establish its product as an industry leader. 

“We know who we are. Our mission, values, and essence are still the same. But, to stay ahead, we have to keep changing paths and directions. So, we have to be flexible, willing to adapt, rethink, and keep improving.”

The Future Ahead

Felipe is excited by Digibee’s future. He sees the company as at a really exhilarating crossroads and believes it has a great product to offer globally. Having the chance to continue developing professionally through exposure to new creative experiences motivates his work daily. Felipe commented that he believes “very much in the product that Digibee delivers. I see a very solid future ahead, which motivates me as a part of this team for us to keep growing together.” With a strong mission, values, and team, along with a commitment to adapt and improve, Digibee is poised to continue elevating itself to be a globally-recognized brand.

Balancing Work & Life at Digibee

A few years back, Felipe suffered health complications that resulted in multiple surgeries and a difficult recovery process. That life-changing ordeal removed him from his personal and professional life for almost a year. He needed to move back home and rely on care from his parents; which he was extremely grateful for. 

Certainly due to the pandemic, many people have come to see the value in therapy and focusing on mental health, but for many, the concept is still stigmatic. Felipe feels passionately that mental health should be prioritized. One of the positive outcomes of his recovery process was giving Felipe a new outlook on the value of therapy and prioritizing mental well-being. He learned how to access the tools you need to control anxiety, overcome complicated moments, find tranquility, and prepare for the unexpected. He finds that has been extremely valuable in both his personal and professional life. “In the professional world, unexpected things happen all the time – you have to stay calm, be able to adapt, and deal with things out of your control. You have to learn to be OK with not being in control of everything.” Felipe and I had a very candid and honest conversation about mental health and I truly appreciate that he was willing to share this inspiring part of his story.

Throughout his life, Felipe has had a deep connection to nature and the sea. He enjoys physical activity and trying different sports or attending events that get him outside with his friends. His interests change a lot, but what has always remained is a love for long-distance cycling and football (a.k.a. soccer to Americans). But don’t get the wrong idea, Felipe joked he’s not as “chill” and he sounds and he’s definitely “not a hippie.” He also really loves urban-living, the vibrancy of the city, loud rock music, and is fascinated by futuristic and cyberpunk aesthetics. The key for Felipe is balancing his exposure to both. 

At Digibee, we have a team of incredible individuals working together to bring our innovative enterprise integration solution forward in the US and globally. It was a pleasure talking to Felipe, one of our exceptional “Digibees,” to learn more about his interests and journey. Keep reading our employee highlights to learn more about this amazing team of people working to make Digibee’s mission possible.

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