Arab and British in equal measure, Samar Maakaroun is a designer and creative director renowned for her creatively multilingual approach to design.

Growing up in Beirut before moving to London, Samar is fluent in three languages and two cultures. Spanning 20+ years across branding, digital storytelling, scenography and typography, her career has focused on balancing aesthetics, context and heritage with brand voice and purpose.

In a globalised world with burgeoning diasporic communities in every city, Samar believes in embracing the fluidity and nuances of identity, seeing complexity as a source of creative inspiration and narrative power. Her work explores the space in-between – where cultures and languages intersect, integrate, align or diverge.


Since October 2023, Samar joined Pentagram as Partner.

She founded Right to Left in 2021, a design agency that straddles cultures and typographic traditions. Specialising in designing for hybrid brands, the multidisciplinary team speaks seven languages and crosses three generations, working to fluidly integrate worlds, cultures and languages across naming, brand strategy, brands systems and identities. An example of their language-hopping, culture-crossing approach manifested in the typographic project 29 Words for 29 Letters, which explores language, translation and the fluidity of meaning through design.


Before Right to Left, Samar worked in the design industry for over 15 years, where she led ambitious projects with major studios. Her notable achievements include coining the first integrated destination brand for Dubai with M&C Saatchi (2015); launching Apple’s brand in Arabic across digital, retail and print (2017); rebranding the Abu Dhabi Media portfolio and later bringing the Diriyah City brand to life with Pentagram (2019).

CONTACT

Linkedin
Instagram 

For new business
samar@rightoleft.co.uk

To work with us and our team
teamsm@pentagram.com

For Interviews and Press
roberts@pentagram.com