Rom | Glen Eden, Auckland

“I regret maybe not travelling enough when I was young. I really love travelling now and with all the responsibilities of work life and family and all that, I probably have less time to do it than I would like to.

So maybe if I could change something, I would do it more when I was young. Go on adventures. Traveling is mostly about meeting other people and cultures, and in the past that meant going abroad and discovering new lands, and now it’s a bit more about learning about our own backyard and finding out more about New Zealand. Exploring the wilderness is more what I try to do these days.

I was actually born in Africa, in Senegal. My parents lived there. I’m from France. We have French parents and I moved here about 20 years ago and I’m settled here now. I grew up a little bit all over the place. My parents travelled a lot. Maybe that’s why I miss travel.

So I’m a designer, and as a designer it’s quite important to know about who you’re designing for, and we have a tendency, especially these days, to forget how different everybody is, and I think it’s really important to just realise that everybody’s different. People have lots of different ideas, different cultures, and the more you know about that, the more you can understand the world at large and make sure you just don’t get stuck in your bubble essentially.”