With more than 28 years of experience in the art and design field working with clients in the Middle East and the GCC, Lara is orchestrating Landor’s creative activity from the Middle East region, sharing a wealth of her knowledge and creativity with the team.
She is instrumental in aligning the studio's global vision with local market dynamics, fostering creativity, and nurturing talent within the team. Her mission is to lead and inspire her colleagues to achieve creative excellence while forging connections with emerging talent and integrating them into Landor's global network seamlessly.
Before joining Landor, Lara was the Creative Director of Design for Apple in the Middle East from 2016 until 2022. Back in 2001 Lara was the first creative to join Landor in Dubai. Being part of the team until 2005 she was a lead designer on projects such as Brand Jordan, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Al Tayer Group.
Lara was honored with two Certificates of Excellence in Typography from The New York Type Directors Club and is a selected artist for Jameel Prize 4, recognized for her innovative Modular Arabic Typography project. Her work as an artist is featured in numerous exhibitions such as the Scripts and Calligraphy exhibition, Paths to the Soul, by the Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia, and the group show “We, the nation of letters” at Wasl Art Space in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

In 2025, Lara was on multiple juries, starting with the Young Cannes Lions UAE, Design jury at The One Show, Industry Craft jury at Cannes Lions, and at The Athar Creativity Festival jury.
She holds a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and a research MA in Arabic scripts and type design from the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique in Nancy, France.

Umid Salay

Session Topic

Umid Salay

Code Academy

Biography

Other Speakers

Thomas Kolster

Jorg Riommi

Lara Assouad

Adam Nowakowski

Building community through creativity

Building community
through creativity