Concepts is an infinite, flexible creative tool for all your good ideas. Available on iOS, Windows and Android.

Visualisation-Focused Design

An Interview with Epifanio Pereira

Visualisation-focused designer Epifanio Pereira shares how sketching and technology influence his creation process.

"Sketching serves as an effective means of communicating one's ideas to others, while simultaneously helping me visually explore those same concepts."

Epifanio Perreira – My name is Epifanio Pereira. I am a visualisation-focused designer interested in exploring digital innovation within areas of User Experience, Product Design, and Applied AI. I enjoy creating multimodal digital experiences and leveraging 3D simulation, photorealism techniques, and motion graphics workflows in my practice. I’m currently working at the BMW Group QUT Design academy as a Junior Design Associate and work as a CGI artist at Axio Lab - a visualisation studio start-up.

Concepts being used to iterate and view several landscape design options after a client meeting in the early stages of a project.

Can you tell us a bit about your creative process? How does Concepts fit into your workflow, and how do you use the app?

When developing a digital asset, whether this is for 3D rendering, animation or a node set-up for an external team, R&D accounts for over 80% of the time needed. This period often affords communications with clients, planning physics system approaches or even experimenting with layouts while travelling—Concepts app fills this need with an infinite canvas and the utility to back endless iterative sketches. I primarily work on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio with the Surface Slim Pen 2, but while travelling, Samsung’s Fold 4 and an S-pen allow me to quickly jot down ideas and designs.

Concepts being used to detail a landscape in the later stages of a project. (left)
Final landscape design - planned from initial client meeting to final design in Concepts.(right)

What excites you the most about the creative process, and how do you feel sketching plays a role in it?

In contrast to computer-aided design or modelling techniques, sketching offers a particularly authentic form of self-expression. Sketching serves as an effective means of communicating one's ideas to others, while simultaneously helping me visually explore those same concepts. Following a design session, hundreds of ideas may be recorded on sticky notes or rapidly recorded on a mobile device. I tend to revel in this part of the design process—when there are infinite possibilities for a solution. It's also beautiful to stand back and observe a project once it's done and see how that one idea has developed.

Mask concept 2022 (left) Sketching Headphones - Lesson planning for a university tutorial. Linework and perspective was created and planned in Concepts (right)

What type of work do you enjoy creating the most? What is your dream project?

As a professional in the creative industry, I am regularly exposed to diverse projects spanning various disciplines, including interior design and motion graphics. Despite this broad range of experiences, I maintain a particular fondness for product design, which holds a special place in my professional and personal endeavours. My dream project would involve designing, modelling, animating, and potentially even producing a tactile keyboard.

Keyboard design exploration.

How has technology changed the way you approach creativity?

Advancements in technology have made creative pursuits more approachable and less daunting in my experience. Whenever I encounter a creative block, I have found that Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to generate new ideas. Additionally, applications like Concepts, Gravity Sketch and Blender have proven valuable for sketching over rough models to produce variations quickly—I'm excited to see how technology continues to change the creative space in the coming years.

The BMW M8 Competition Coup - Rendering created for the BMW Group QUT Design Academy M8 Launch event. Concepts was used to dismantle, stylise and plan the engine’s remodel.

What is your favourite Concepts feature? How do you prefer to apply this tool or feature to your work?

Vector sketching and touch gestures are among my favourite features. Both while travelling or when sitting at my desk, I appreciate not having to reach for my keyboard or an on-screen button to perform basic functions like un-do, zooming, or colour picking. The vector-based lines also factor into this gesture-based interface as they allow me to infinitely scale ideas and details, and allow for the flexibility to adjust the line's thickness, weighting, opacity and colour at a moment's notice.

Concepts being used to storyboard an animation for a client

Do you have any thoughts or advice for creators like yourself who are looking to excel in their own process?

My advice for other creators, and likewise to a younger me, would be to pick one project at a time and revel in completing it. Often it's easy to begin several artworks at once, spurred by a brief period of inspiration and motivation—but following through on an idea I find has been infinitely more rewarding, especially in the long run. Concepts lets me work on one project at a time, while also allowing me to list and brain other ideas on separate infinite canvases.

Epifanio Pereira is a visualisation-driven designer experimenting with new technologies and pushing the boundaries of his craft.

You can find Epi @epifaniopereira.work on Instagram and his website.

Discover more of Epi's work here on his Concepts Creator profile.

Interview by Annelise Sandberg
Hero: Concepts being used to iterate vehicle designs as part of a University led project
Cover: Camera exploration sketches

Visualisation-Focused Design

Recommended