Margherita Porrà, founder and creative director of arithmetic and award-winning designer, is celebrated for her innate talent in synthesizing the unspoken feeling needs of humans, their behaviours, and the market data into an aesthetic harmony, which resonates and creates change. She is equal parts analytical and creative, thriving in the ambiguity of paradoxes and opposites. Her work is expansive in thought and concept, deep in research and connection—evoking the emotion we crave. Highly discerning, Margherita's work is rich in meaning-making through storytelling—actioning the knowledge that our brains recognize and celebrating memorable stories—the most memorable ones being authentic.

She is a driving thought leader in the human-centric branding process where human and soul-based needs come first (where people are not abstracted to simply “consumer” and relegated to data points), connecting human feelings to the outward expression of a brand, stripping away the clutter of marketing jargon to create an offering which is rich in honesty and emotion. It is her belief that once we can connect as humans, we have a chance to engage each others' help in healing our Earth. Margherita has spent her design career deeply aware of dwindling resources, feeling it in her bones and in a panic for change. Margherita leads the arithmetic team in investing in research for alternative packaging materiality and manufacturing partners, continually asking the uncomfortable questions, and changing personal behaviour to understand what is involved in order to incite change in others. By extension, and in action, Margherita is actively redefining what the luxury category is. In her vision, the New Luxury is sustainable, inclusive, values-led with many independent businesses making quality goods with time and care. It is wellness. It is craft. It is honest. It will have a disregard for the overpriced mass-manufactured and over-marketed category that is unattainable and lacks true authenticity. The New Luxury swaps exclusivity for connection.

Following her formal education in graphic design and international business, graduating with honours, Margherita launched her design career in the intensity of the fashion industry. She brought her artistic vision to life through the design of hundreds of products from shoes to textile design to homewares sold worldwide for both leading Canadian and American fashion brands; all the while, honing a keen production sensibility while working hands-on with skilled artisans. With extensive design experience in consumer goods categories, Margherita has worked on everything from brand vision and strategy, identity, packaging, retail interior, and product design. She has over 20 years of industry experience designing for retail-focused product producers, with a focus on health, food, wellness, and fashion, in the luxury market. Inspired by her own health issues, her personal passion for healing through a plant-based diet, paired with her refined taste, has fuelled her work in the health, food, and wellness categories with great success in breaking convention in stale markets.

Over the past 21 years, Margherita has received numerous design awards, including 38 awards in the past 9 years. She is the recipient of 9 Pentawards, an inaugural Dieline Sustainability Award, the AACE Award, and the award for Canadian Design Exchange Emerging Graphic Designer of the Year. Her design work has been published countless times in The Dieline, Taschen’s The Package Design Book, Victionary, Applied Arts Magazine, IDN Magazine, Wallpaper Magazine, and Pattern-Base Book, to name a few.

A systems-driven communicator and interdisciplinary problem solver devoted to cultivating connection and clarity. Skilled at swiftly translating vision into actionable strategy, she approaches design as a powerful medium for uniting people, ideas, and experiences across time and space.

Grounded in an innate relationship with nature—shaped by prairie roots and a lifelong engagement with traditional craft—Brooke draws inspiration from the intelligence and harmony found in natural systems. This sensibility informs her approach to creative leadership, where she seeks solutions that are both innovative and attuned to the human and ecological contexts they serve.

Brooke’s career is anchored in deep, hands-on experience. From her early days immersed in the worlds of museums and galleries to spending significant time in the trenches of small business startups, she has built a rare fluency in the realities of scalable growth, brand-building, and organizational resilience. Her work has spanned Fine Art, Craft, and Design, equipping her with an intuitive ability to synthesize disparate ideas, anticipate trends, and shape compelling visual narratives.

As a trusted partner to boutique businesses and creative ventures, Brooke is known for her ability to bring structure to ambition. She excels at aligning brand vision with systematic execution, fostering environments where ideas can flourish and connections can deepen. Her approach balances strategic thinking with aesthetic rigor, always oriented toward meaningful and resonant outcomes.

Brooke holds a Bachelor of Design with distinction from Alberta University of the Arts, alongside formative studies at Falmouth Arts University in the United Kingdom. Her professional journey reflects a commitment to continuous learning, perspective-building, and communicating with purpose and precision.