arithmetic creative

SUMMER RETAIL ACTIVATION IN A HERITAGE BUILDING

A rare opportunity for a brand ready to step into the physical world.

This summer, we are opening our Granville Island studio to one business seeking a temporary home for a retail concept, collection launch, showroom, exhibition, workshop series, or immersive customer experience.

Set within Canada’s second most visited destination, the space offers an opportunity to actualize dreams and test your concept in the real world—gathering customer feedback, validating demand, and refining your offering before taking the next step.

Thoughtfully designed with high ceilings, exposed beams, original wood floors, and large storefront windows, private restroom, the studio is best suited to brands with a strong aesthetic point of view and a desire to create something memorable.

Available June 15 –September 30, during Granville Island’s busiest season.

For details and rates, please email [email protected]

Photos by Gilian Stevens & Kelsie Knouf

A few weeks ago, I was in NYC accepting a Dieline Sustainability Award.

I’ve been meaning to write about it, but the truth is, in this creative journey, every step forward unlocks a history, and some histories need more time to process. The award was never really the story.

For over 15 years, I’ve been researching sustainable materials, funding my own sourcing research, and asking what packaging becomes after we stop needing it — and whose future that affects.

There are resources and conversations now. Fifteen years ago, I was laughed at by package salesmen in business suits and sidelined for suggesting we didn’t need to use plastic.

Disrespect glues itself to you.

Then I got sick. A decade-long health journey changed the trajectory of my life and my work. It led me to start turning over every stone I could find, searching for where toxicity lives and how design might become part of the solution.

The questions I’ve been asking as a designer have always been deeply personal.

This project, created alongside my friend Dean of EVER AMID, brought many of those threads together: a compostable bagasse shell made from agricultural waste and a handcrafted porcelain vessel designed to remain.

We were deeply honoured to receive a Plastic Free Award for the work.

What feels most meaningful is the visibility placed on ideas that often get lost in the noise: female founders, material innovation, plastic reduction, craftsmanship, and slower, more intentional ways of making.

Some things take years before they can be seen.

The award made something visible.

Not just the project.

The years behind it.

— Margherita

We just won a Dieline Sustainability Award this morning in New York!!!

For over 15 years, we’ve been researching and designing with sustainable materials — questioning what packaging is, what it becomes, and what it leaves behind.

This project brought those years into focus, shaped in close collaboration with my friend Nadine of Everamid.

A molded bagasse shell made from sugarcane waste, shaped precisely to protect the vessel, then return safely to the earth. Inside it, a handcrafted porcelain form — speckled, weighted, and meant to remain long after the product is gone.

Not packaging you throw away. Something you keep. But if you need to toss, it will return to its origin lightly.

We’re really proud of this one — for its restraint, its material honesty, and the patient hands and minds that brought it into form.

— Margherita

!!!! Final packaging design deadline is today at 4pm PDT for !!!!

This is my third year on the Pentawards jury, judging the luxury category — I would really love to see more Canadian design represented internationally, especially talented you ladies!! There’s even a concept category.

I have a limited 50€ discount code to share and it takes less than an hour to enter. You just need 5 project photos and a write up. Use code: MARGHERITA

Last year, I dedicated 18hrs of personal time to personally writing considered feedback to each entry. If you’re awarded, your work will be featured in The Package Design Book published by Taschen and a trophy, obviously.

Enter here: https://bit.ly/4sakab6