Is this sense of space something you try to teach your students?
RG The world is three-dimensional. However, if you’re thinking about social media, everything is becoming flat; it’s on a screen, it’s an image. Teaching at the polytechnic and working with students, I find that the younger generation sees everything from the front; the best picture, the best position.

They don’t take the time and energy to walk around and look at things from different angles. This is a matter of conceptual and physical perspective that people are starting to lose. It’s flattening life, in a certain way.
 
To evolve in life, you need to explore, to take the time and distance to look at things from every possible position. That’s what I try to teach my students; to be brave and not just to accept things for what they are.

See also: The Secret To Crafting Instagram-Worthy Spaces

What other advice would you give to aspiring designers?
RG Sometimes I will answer, “Don’t become a designer, it’s a hard job”. It’s a hard job for me, but there are other people who can enjoy it a lot. It’s a matter of your personality and your collaborators; sometimes there is a good match, sometimes it’s a disaster. You need to develop thick skin in order to survive in this industry.
 
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not but my skin is very, very thin; I’m very emotional about things. Design for me is not a sketch; design is a small part of who I am. Over the years, I am creating a family, an alphabet, a language. Although some of the letters are at Magis, some at Flos and some at Molteni&C, it’s still the letters that I was creating and it’s important for me at the end to write a story, a coherent sentence.
 
I want to reach a certain perfection. It’s not just about promoting a product that would be sold. I don’t think I’ve ever designed a bestseller for a company; none of my pieces are amazing sellers. It’s not about making the perfect project. The room divider is a simple idea. It’s not brilliant or aesthetically amazing. It’s there but it has enough reasons to exist.

That’s what I like; it’s not vulgar. There is nothing else I can do, there is nothing else I know how to do. I enjoy teaching, I enjoy sketching and creating objects. Sometimes they’re more functional, sometimes they’re just sculptures; I give myself the freedom to travel between different worlds.

In your opinion, what are the qualities of good design?
RG I don’t think that there’s a pure formula to it. Sometimes I appreciate a work that is purist and minimalist. Sometimes I like excess and things that do not follow my personal taste. Good design starts from a good idea. The question is how you shape it, how you present it and how you use it.

Good design can have endless amounts of shapes and different scales; I don’t think that I create good design, I also criticise myself all the time. I try and sometimes I succeed more, and sometimes I succeed less. I always look further, hoping the next time will be better or more pleasing.
 
What keeps you inspired?
RG Dissatisfaction for me is a pillar of energy to keep trying to be better and to evolve. The result is good but it can be better. There is a term in Hebrew—when you achieve something, you should never sit and relax comfortably because that will make you numb and make you stop doing what you’re doing; I really believe in this term. It’s not that the work is done, we can celebrate. I think that this is just a step and life is made of many, many steps.