Inside A Designer’s Head

People have often asked me what things have struck me as the most Cyberpunk moments in my life. There are a lot of them, but here’s one of the most impressive– the view from the highest building in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For years, I’ve tried to describe what it’s like to be looking out over a cityscape full of Manhattan-sized skyscrapers–that goes on unendingly to the horizon– in all four directions of the compass.  The largest city on the southern hemisphere; the seventh largest city on earth, SP is so big that many of my “Paulista” friends who live there have never been to the other side of the city.  At ground level, the city streets are a tight maze of buildings, parks, enormous billboards (the biggest I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to a lot of places around the world) and milling people.

Skyscraper lobbies are filled with entire street markets of microstalls, where you can buy produce, meat and knicknacks. Totally Cyberpunk. Giant billboards flicker overhead, blinding with shifting video pixels. Totally Cyberpunk.

So until I get to Tokyo, SP is my most Cyberpunk megalopolis. And I love the place.

I’ll leave you with a bit of video to think about. It even sounds Cyberpunk.