Paul Cocksedge & Ron Arad

Ron Arad 56, industrial designer, artist and architect, was born in Tel Aviv, to a painter mother and a photographer father. He attended the Jerusalem Academy of Art between 1971 and 1973 and The Architectural Association in London from 1974 to 1979. He was head of the Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art until last year. His works include the Tom Vac stackable chair for Vitra, the Bookworm bookcase for Kartell and the car showroom at Maserati's HQ in Modena, Italy.

I met Paul in very dubious circumstances. I was looking at portfolios of prospective students for the Royal College and one of them had some counterfeit [pound]10 notes stuffed inside it as bribes to the people who were going to decide who would be invited to the interviews or not. It worked. I was subjected to his sense of humour and his cockiness before I even met him. So when he came in for his interview I thought "Ah! It's you".

Paul is one of the best examples we've had of someone who was plucked from the anonymous world of industrial design into being the author of his own work. I don't feel like a mentor to him - absolutely not! The thing about teaching is that normally you're very fast to claim credit for successful students. But I think that some people are brilliant and unstoppable not because of us but in spite of us. That's the case with Paul.

I really got to know Paul best in the last weeks before the degree show, when everyone was very busy. No one went to sleep because they were putting the finishing touches to their work. It was clearly the wrong time to come up with new ideas but that's when Paul started playing with lava. He was talking about making moulds and going to places where there were lava flows and filling the moulds he'd made. I don't know what happened to this project but I was very impressed that he was totally oblivious to the panic around him.

When Paul was still a student I was asked by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake to put together a show for his gallery in Tokyo of recent graduates. I included one current student - Paul - and I don't know what he remembers but I gave him such a hard time then. He was so - what's an adjective that can be printed? - unprofessional and slightly childish and helpless. But this innocent, child-like thing is part of the way he operates.

I hope he hasn't changed much since we first met. Is he more together now? He must be - I don't go and check his books anymore but I can see his output and that is getting better and better. He's still very cocky but his helplessness is one of the best weapons in his arsenal.

Paul Cocksedge 28, is a rising star of lighting design. Born in London, he studied industrial design at Sheffield Hallam University before attending the Royal College of Art in London. He has exhibited his work at the Design Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. He was nominated for the Design Museum's Designer of the Year Prize in 2004.

I first met Ron at my interview for the Royal College of Art when I was in my early 20s. I had to go to a wedding afterwards so I was wearing a suit - not the sort of thing to wear at an art college. At that time I didn't know that much about him or his work. He had such a presence when he was in the room - there's always excitement wherever he is.

I did my BA in Sheffield and while some people chose to work for a designer to get some experience, I always wanted to stay fresh and go straight into an MA. It was a busy time trying to find a place at college, looking for somewhere close by to live, setting up as a student. Something clicked for me at the Royal College. It was the right type of environment for me to grow as a designer. Without that place, I wouldn't be where I am today. Ron's got quite a short attention span, so he's always looking for new things that are inspiring, and he wants his students to push themselves. We connected over the projects that I worked on. I remember showing him one of my lights and he got his phone out and said, "Let's call Ingo". He made a call to the German lighting designer and installation creator Ingo Maurer and things happened. He can get things moving for people and he did so for me.

We see each other around the world where we exhibit. Two years out of college I designed a chandelier for Swarovski and he designed one as well, so from the inspiring time I had when he taught me, we've got to the stage that we see each other in different countries. Sometimes we won't see each other for six months, but then I'll run into him in Tokyo. I saw him last week at the Milan Design Fair. Every time I design something he's always at the back of my mind. He guides me.

What makes Ron unique is that he's still doing it - he's a teacher, a professor, but he's always doing amazing work, pushing the boundaries and doing new things. He's an inspiration. He pushes people and he doesn't want to see things that he's seen before. To make it as a designer you need to constantly push yourself, and to crack it in London it's even more difficult. The fact that he's done it all geared me up for what it was going to be like.