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who was your inspiration growing up and why? My mother was a very inspiring figure to me while growing up. I was constantly in awe of all the beautiful work she did. She always helped and encouraged me in any craft project I wanted to undertake. If it was paper I wanted to make or fabric dyeing projects, or even leather stitching, she always got me the books I needed to learn. what are your views on neue helvetica arabic? I personally feel that even though it is a good well-balanced contemporary Arabic typeface, which we sorely need more of, it does not carry through into Arabic what makes Helvetica Neue so unique in Latin typography. if the word faith which is a huge part of the arabic culture was written in Neue Helvetica arabic what would this mean? I am personally not at all interested in mixing faith and typography. saying that faith is a huge part of the Arabic culture, undermines a big part of the arab population for which being Arab doesn’t necessarily rhyme with being Muslim and mixes culture and religion in a way that for me is reminiscent of the dark ages in europe. You might get a very different answer from other Arab type designers perhaps more so from arab calligraphers. But for me it’s like saying that if you speak English you must be a Protestant or speaking Italian implies you’re a catholic. It is not at all the case, and I think it is about time that the rest of the world understands that being an Arab does not imply that you’re Muslim, and that even if you were, it need not transpire into your creative work.
examples of Lara’s work in multi cultural indentities. Fig 10 Bloomingdales logo, 11 Stella Mccartney logo, 12 Moschino logo, 13 Royal air maroc logo