After spending several years honing her craft inside Pentagram’s London office, Samar Maakaroun chose to step away and launch her own studio, Right to Left. Only a couple of years into her independent venture, Pentagram came calling once again and this time, invited her back as a full partner. Leaving to find your voice is often the surest route to return to yourself, picking up confidence and reassurance for what’s next.
Born in Lebanon and moving to London in 2005, Maakaroun’s journey has been shaped by cross-cultural perspectives, a fierce sense of integrity, and an urge to design with meaning. As a Pentagram partner, she has redefined what it means to lead—blending strategy with soul, tradition with innovation, and design with deep cultural understanding.
In this conversation with Maakaroun at D&AD Festival in London, she candidly spoke about everything from launching a studio during lockdown to judging the D&AD Awards, navigating life between cultures, and why design must do more than look good; design must mean something.
(Interview lightly edited for length and clarity.)
What was it like joining Pentagram after already establishing your own voice and studio?
Pentagram gave me a unique opportunity: to run my own studio with complete creative freedom, while being part of a wider community of some of the best designers in the world. It’s not easy to be voted in by all the partners; it’s a long process, but it’s also a vote of trust.
You’ve spoken about being an “in-betweener”—someone who exists between cultures. How has that shaped your work?
It’s central to everything I do. I’m Lebanese, Arab, and I live and work in London. I speak three languages, and that multilingualism isn’t just verbal—it’s visual. It gives you different reference points. You stop looking at design as a universal solution and start thinking about specificity. I always tell younger designers: your complexity is your advantage. Don’t simplify it. Lean into it.
We need to stop treating diversity like a checkbox. It’s about building teams and studios where different voices shape the work from the start, not at the review stage.
What advice would you give to designers navigating multiple cultural identities in their personal or professional lives?
As designers, we’re all working with the same tools—Photoshop doesn’t change depending on where you’re from. That gives us a shared starting point. But if you’re Indian, Chinese, Arab—or from any culture that isn’t dominant in Western design—you also bring with you an entirely different set of reference points. That’s a strength. You have the ability to see from multiple perspectives and, more importantly, to add your own voice to the conversation.
Even though we’re solving briefs and not creating purely personal work like artists might, our values still shape what we make. We exist in the work, even if it’s faint. That’s why working with authenticity is so critical. We need to be mindful of how cultural stereotypes show up in design and make sure we’re not reinforcing them. My advice is: don’t oversimplify or flatten your identity just to seem relevant or “universal.” Embrace complexity. It’s what makes your work powerful.
Complexity is your advantage. Don’t simplify it. Lean into it.
HARAKA BARAKA, Book design for non-profit skateboarding organisation SkatePal.
As a D&AD judge, what trends did you notice in this year’s entries?
Three stood out. One was a celebration of chaos, design that breaks grids and rules, almost as a reaction to years of clean minimalism. The second was a return to craft—hand-drawn type, tactile design, the analog way of how graphic design started. And third, type as texture. It’s not just what it says, but how it feels.
Design is not going to fix the world, but it can help us see it more clearly, and that’s powerful.
What do you want to see more of in design education and the industry as a whole?
Mentorship. Representation. Accountability. Designers need business training. They need cultural literacy. And we need to stop treating diversity like a checkbox. It’s about building teams and studios where different voices shape the work from the start, not at the review stage.
And lastly, what gives you hope for the future of design?
The next generation. They’re bolder, more politically aware, and they care deeply. I think we’re entering an era where storytelling, ethics, and empathy are as valued as aesthetics. Design is not going to fix the world, but it can help us see it more clearly, and that’s powerful.
Maakaroun’s story is one of quiet revolution. In a world that rewards speed and sameness, she chooses nuance, integrity, and the long game. She is a risk taker and isn’t afraid to show who she is and express herself. In doing so, she reminds us that great design doesn’t just speak, it listens. And sometimes, it speaks in multiple languages at once.
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