Guia Identidade Gastronômica Paulistana
Voluntary Work for
City of São Paulo Prefecture
São Paulo City Gastronomy Observatory
Universidade Anhembi Morumbi
In 2024, I received a proposal and challenge from Anhembi Morumbi University, in partnership with the City of São Paulo Prefecture and the São Paulo City Gastronomy Observatory — two highly respected public institutions in Brazil — to create the Paulistana Gastronomic Identity Guide. The Guide aims to map and establish the most iconic and timeless restaurants in the city of São Paulo, making them publicly and freely available to both the general population and students of Anhembi Morumbi University.
This guide was developed in collaboration with students from the Bachelor's Degree in Gastronomy, the Associate Degree in Gastronomy, and Le Cordon Bleu programs at Anhembi Morumbi University, as well as the Secretariat of Communication, Tourism, and Hospitality of the City of São Paulo.
Year
2024
Moodboard
First, let me present the initial visual concept of the project:
An incomplete version created by students from previous semesters of the Gastronomy programs had been in circulation since 2023. However, I was tasked with recreating the visual identity in a more modernized and minimalist way.
I began by conducting visual research and gathering references from local places and cultures, then created a mood board using AI to streamline my creative process.
Colors
The color selection was clearly guided by the mood board. For each region of the city, I selected a color representing the predominant influence based on the flags of the peoples who once occupied that area. One example is the predominance of Portuguese and Italian communities in the Bixiga neighborhood, which led to the color green. In the city's "Centro Novo" (New Downtown), where African peoples (such as those from Angola and Mozambique), as well as Spanish and German populations, have a strong presence, the chosen color was yellow. In Liberdade, with its significant Asian cultural influence, the predominant flag color is red. For the Historic Downtown, I opted to convey the seriousness and immense workforce that once thrived there, as it served as a refuge for all cultures drawn to labor and was the birthplace of São Paulo's first railway line — the Blue Line 1.
Maps
By far, the creation and adaptation of the maps was my greatest challenge. I was asked not to use any kind of digital map for the development of the guide, yet I was still required to provide the location of each address. I could have taken the easier route — but the easier route isn't always the best one for accessibility. I chose to CREATE the maps using visual references in Illustrator. To do this, I sourced images and vectorized real streets and pathways across the entire central region of the city of São Paulo for use in the guide. The result turned out excellent — but it was an enormous amount of work.
Icons
To further enhance accessibility and make the guide truly feel like a guide, I created icons representing each establishment. As mentioned earlier, this idea originated from the initial 2023 student version of the guide, which used similar icons for identification purposes — alongside iconography of the city's historical landmarks. However, that landmark iconography was eventually removed due to the lack of architectural landmark representation in certain neighborhoods.
Each icon represents a type of establishment and the type of cuisine served. These icons can be seen alongside the header on every odd-numbered page, accompanied by the region's predominant color for easy leafing and navigation.
The majority of the icons were created by me using Adobe Illustrator, while the Cantina and Restaurant icons were sourced online for free by the students who worked on the initial version of the project.
Responsibilities
As mentioned earlier, while the Gastronomy students focused on research, photography, restaurant interviews, and writing reviews and content, my work was entirely dedicated to the graphic and digital aspects of the project. I also coordinated with the Gastronomy Observatory to align on deadlines and required materials. Additionally, I managed file organization alongside Professor Sênia, where we evaluated the students' images and decided which ones needed to be re-photographed and which could be sourced from the internet.
Journalists Guta Chaves and Miguel Guedes were responsible for evaluating and revising the texts written by the students, which were then properly laid out in the guide by me.
Results
As a result, following the publication and promotion of the material, gastronomic tourism in São Paulo's downtown area grew by 81.2% in 2025. The guide has been downloaded over 1 million times and currently has a sequel (Volume 2), which follows my original layout with modified colors.
Also in 2025, the Director of Le Cordon Bleu Institute, Patrick Martin, shared the guide with the owner of Le Cordon Bleu Institute, André Cointreau, as well as with the then-Governor of the State of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas. In 2026, Governor Freitas launched a tourism expansion campaign aimed at restoring the glory of São Paulo's downtown area and promoting tourism.
Furthermore, we successfully saved two restaurants from bankruptcy. The guide is currently being translated into Chinese and English to promote it to tourists visiting the city. Additionally, several restaurants featured in the guide have received their first Michelin Stars and Bib Gourmand recommendations.