Dubai: British Lebanese typography designer and creative director Samar Maakaroun is making waves with her innovative multilingual approach to design. Known for seamlessly blending cultures and languages into her work, Maakaroun stands out as a unique voice in the global design community.
This week, she is sharing her expertise at the Innovation by Design Summit in Doha, an event hosted by sustainable property developer Msheireb Properties. The summit offers a platform where thought leaders converge to explore new ideas that shape the future of design, and Maakaroun’s participation highlights her growing influence in this sphere.
Maakaroun is the founder of the design agency Right to Left, a creative hub that recently crafted the brand identity for the impactful Together for Palestine charity concert held in London. The event drew celebrities and global attention, raising funds for Palestinian-led organizations such as Taawon, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and the Palestine Medical Relief Service.
Reflecting on the design choices for the concert’s posters, Maakaroun explained that the approach was deliberately understated. “I couldn’t approach this with like, ‘OK, I’m going to, you know, do something super slick,’ because it’s just not right,” she said. The purpose was to create a space of safety and respect rather than focus on the performers — a sentiment captured through a striking black-and-white poster that utilized negative space to evoke a sense of emotional openness. The white space symbolized a place to hold people’s feelings during a difficult time, and the minimalism also ensured cost-efficient printing to maximize fundraising efforts.
Beyond her own agency, Maakaroun is a partner at the globally renowned design firm Pentagram, established in 1972. Over her 20-year career, she has developed a reputation for tackling projects that straddle different worlds—Arabic, Latin, English, and French. She articulated a common challenge in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, where separate English and Arabic brand versions lead to fragmented brand identities.
Her philosophy is one of integration and hybridity. “For me it’s important to actually create brands that represent this hybridity in people,” she said. Her goal is to design a single, memorable “mark” that can transcend language barriers, bolstering brand ownership and efficiency across markets.
This bilingual approach is critical to her creative process. Maakaroun pointed out a frequent pitfall in branding efforts where English-centric designs are later translated into Arabic, without adequate consideration of the script’s unique aesthetics and cultural context. This can result in designs that feel disjointed or lose their impact. By leveraging her dual cultural perspective, she ensures her designs are authentic and resonate equally in both languages.
Among her notable regional achievements is co-creating Dubai’s first integrated destination brand in collaboration with M&C Saatchi in 2015. She also spearheaded the launch of Apple’s Arabic brand identity in digital, retail, and print channels in 2017, a project that showcased her ability to blend global corporate standards with local cultural nuances. In 2019, she contributed to the branding of Saudi Arabia’s historic Diriyah City, further cementing her footprint in the Gulf’s evolving design landscape.
For Maakaroun, brand identity is about storytelling—sharing who people are, what values they cherish, and how they wish to be seen. Representation is at the heart of her practice, where each project becomes an opportunity to reflect diverse cultural narratives.
Speaking on “The Language of Identity” in Doha, Maakaroun delved into what it means to navigate multiple languages and cultures as part of the creative process. Her insights shine a light on how design transcends mere aesthetics to become a bridge between identity, language, and emotion in today’s interconnected world.
