Margherita Porrà, founder and creative director of arithmetic and award-wining 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 20 years, Margherita has received numerous design awards, including twenty-three in the past eight years. She is the recipient of three 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.

Inconceivable inner strength. High standards, higher values. A true thought partner who aims her efforts towards driving positive change. Elizabeth Vegh is a multifaceted strategist with specialties in consumer market strategy, creative direction, editorial photography production, styling, project management, research, supplier sourcing and manufacturing management, and client services. She dissects how things work and makes them work even better.

Her in-depth and hands-on approach to the intricacies and, simultaneously, the big picture provides our clients with comprehensive project management and analytics, clear direction in complex projects, and ingenuity in problem-solving. She effortlessly injects the latest industry news and cross-pollinates insights from all market categories to bring an immense bounty of social and cultural awareness and relevance, knowledge, and expertise to the foundation of the brands we build—all this while keeping a sharp eye on the bottom line.

Elizabeth’s work and interests reveal a relentless and enthusiastic pursuit of the idea that design, fashion, visual art and culture are all a confluent means of communication. She is passionate about all facets of visual communication and believes that they do not exist in compartments.

Elizabeth’s experience and education are agents of this belief. The specialties of her formal education are in the social sciences, design, and visual art. Not only does she have experience project-managing large-scale visual art exhibitions and working intimately and directly with internationally-acclaimed institutions, such as documenta, the Barbican, and The National Gallery of Canada, she continues to serve as an integral leader of sustainability, social, and ethics research within our practice. The depth of her extensive experience, dedication, and knowledge has meant that she is a trusted representative for clients, having regularly been assigned to on-site manage manufacturing and negotiations internationally.

It is Elizabeth’s unparalleled creative instincts and unique personal practice that set her apart. She has been a dedicated part of arithmetic’s enduring growth and success for over ten years, and the recipient of 17 design awards since 2015, from the internationally-renowned American Design Awards, Pentaward, and Dieline to name a few.

Interdisciplinary by nature, intuitively creative. A constant observer with a penchant for deciphering the complex into aesthetic honesty. Our Senior Graphic Designer, Lindsey Hampton has over a decade of design experience. Her instantly recognizable style, weaves statement typographic treatments with deep meaning and harmonic colour palettes. Always on point. Always on trend.

Growing up with musicians as parents, Lindsey discovered her passion for design through music and it was in the local music scene where she established herself as a designer after studying at the Art Institute of Vancouver. Honing her skillset through years of creating unique show posters, album art and merch designs for local and international bands, musicians, production companies and record labels, built a foundation for visualizing human emotion through creative connection.

Lindsey has always believed that design is never restricted to one medium, that once you learn the principles and learn to follow your instinct and eye, you can design anything. In 2011 she began experimenting in ceramics and has since gained international recognition for her work in that field. She has been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, New York Magazine, Bon Appetit and more. This practice has helped guide her to become a more fluid designer, moving seamlessly between the physical and digital world in many mediums and not being afraid to get her hands dirty.

Through her time at arithmetic, Lindsey has helped the team win multiple awards, including The Dieline Award for Sustainability In Packaging Design, and an American Package Design Award.

Born on a quiet corner of Vancouver Island, Rachel spent her formative years outside in the forest. There, she developed an appreciation for nature's innate ability to create beauty in all shapes and forms. The time she spent surrounded by nature has inspired her to seek out design solutions that are thoughtful and environmentally conscious. Nature continues to be a source of awe and inspiration in everything she does.

Rachel graduated with distinction from Capilano University, majoring in branding. She believes one of the greatest gifts that design gives us is the opportunity to continually learn and grow. Rachel works relentlessly to master design problems of all shapes and sizes.

Sustainability and innovative technologies are at the forefront of Rachel's design research. She is perpetually researching new and innovative materials to ensure that Arithmetic's design solutions are inventive, beautiful and leave a minimal environmental footprint. As new technologies and research emerge, Rachel looks forward to the opportunity to deepen her understanding of how the things we make impact the world we live in and evolve her design approach to reduce our impact on the Earth.

As part of the team at Arithmetic Rachel has won numerous awards including an Applied Arts Packaging Award, multiple GDUSA American Package Design Awards, The Dieline Award for Sustainability in Packaging Design and a most recently, a Pentaward.

At first meeting, it is clear that Sydney’s personal passion for the culture of design is woven into the fabric of her being and forms the lens to the belief that culture connects. Her personal, eclectic interests, span from vastly different sub-cultures and styles providing her a wealth of inspiration which manifests as a unique perspective in her design work.

It is in the rhythm of culture which Sydney finds unique pockets of inspiration — particularly through experimental artists, Japanese film scores, and the poetry of rap — and how sound can be visualized. Music’s nuances and stories are incredible sources of visual inspiration and are amazing examples of how mood can be conveyed both simply, or complexly layered in art and design, and incorporated into culture—inspiring fashion.

With a strong foundation in the Fine Arts, Sydney established her passion for creation. Her intrinsic abilities and interest in the art world led her into a deep love for ancient and classical art history and archaeology. She is equal parts inspired by ancient works of art and experimental design — two polar opposites which she feel can beautifully illustrate the common threads in our world and human experience and which she finds equally delightful in their obvious contrast.

These creations and civilizations of the past, and the contrast found in their art, heavily influence my personal design work. As she sees it, classical artwork is like a metaphor that expresses how she can approach design. The story and its meaning are laid down first — a vessel for conveying a theme or emotion — amplified by layers of revision, artistic development, and emotive language — in the end producing a piece that is both communicative and interesting.

Highly empathetic and in-tune, Sydney’s has a unique ability synthesize her life moments with the human experience into designs, copywriting and brand messaging which is sensitive, heart felt, and connects humans to humans in a heart led experience.

Sydney is the recipient of a handful of design awards and honourable mentions, including: Winner 2020 Applied Arts Student Awards for Entire Design Program — Campaign, Silver Winner/Finalist 2020 ADCC Student Awards Project, Honourable Mention 2020 RGD Student Awards Bell Media Award for Typography (Digital), Honourable Mention 2020 RGD Student Awards, 52 Pick-Up Inc. Award for Typography (Digital). Her high standard for academic achievement and learning landed her on the Dean’s List for the breadth of her university career, and valedictorian.