Despite the high competition, 28-year-old Lebanese Mark Antar has become one of only a few influential designers in the world to tap into the creative world of Formula One through social media.
“Working with F1 teams is honestly surreal,” he told The961. “I’ve watched F1 since I was a kid, I’ve always loved F1,” he said.
“Some people might think that it’s something from another dimension, something unreachable – and I still feel that way. I can’t believe I’m working with the F1 team and with people at F1.”
Among Antar’s projects, he designed a helmet for the Canadian Aston Martin Cognizant F1 driver, Lance Stroll, and worked with several F1 teams, such as McLaren, Alfa Romeo Racing, and so on.
Antar told us that it can get overwhelming to be trusted to design something for such big names and then have millions of people around the world see it and judge it, but that it’s equally exciting.
The Designer
Born and raised in Lebanon, Antar moved with his family to Australia where he lived for 8 years and studied Industrial and Product Design at RMIT University. Most of his projects revolved around automotive design, he told us.
He’s always been interested in cars and design and managed to mesh those passions into what he is doing today.
Now, he’s taking on the world in racing car livery design while based in Lebanon.
How It All Started
Starting off as a hobby, Antar decided to share his livery design concepts with his few followers on Instagram.
Before he knew it, his page began to blow up, catching the attention of F1-related pages and eventually getting noticed by professionals, such as the F1 social media manager.
Today, Antar is the head of his own business which gets most of its clients through social media by people who notice and love his designs.
While he’s currently still working with Lance Stroll, there are many more projects under his sleeves, such as an aircraft livery design that he plans to reveal later on.
From Lebanon to the World
“What makes this whole thing even more special is that I’m doing it from Lebanon. I know so many Lebanese people don’t get the opportunity to reach their goals because, well, it’s Lebanon we’re talking about…” he said regrettably.
“It’s sad but we have so much potential in the country,” he assured, adding that he felt fortunate to have been able to have been exposed to the outside world.
“But wherever we are, we (Lebanese) can be achievers and pioneers,” he said, feeling proud to represent his country in such a unique domain.
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