The quality of design, not the quantity, is where Cibic’s energies are focused. “We are sinking in an enormous quantity of objects,” he says. “What are the principles for a new design manifesto? Now is the moment for action.” We segue to the topic of San Francisco, where Cibic has been spending much more time over the past year. “I came to live part-time in San Francisco because I felt it is an epicenter of change, just as Milan felt in the early '80s,” he explained. "Memphis was one of the most relevant design movements of the last century, and Milan was the Silicon Valley of design."

Though the Memphis design collective was active for less than a decade, disbanding around 1987, its aesthetic continued to gain traction, and by the early 1990s, the impact of the collaborative’s whimsical, colorful, geometric, Deco-meets-Pop style finally had its foothold. It still informs design of all sorts, including fashion, as seen in designer Bill Gaytten’s fall/winter 2011-12 Christian Dior haute couture collection and Angela Missoni’s winter 2015 ready-to-wear.

A tableware set by Cibic, part of MoMA's collaboration with Design Memorabilia.

"Memphis was a brief period in design and one where critical review has been, and continues to be, all over the map,” says San Francisco–based interior designer Douglas Durkin. “It’s an important period to consider in terms of Aldo Cibic. Memphis was fiercely unique and experimental in form, function, and aesthetics.”

As for what Cibic thought about the Met Breuer’s Sottsass retrospective? "No, I didn’t go. I didn’t want to go," he says, without any tone of criticism. "You know, the big teaching of Sottsass was to look ahead, to be compassionate, to be understanding and empathetic to what people were feeling."

For Cibic, the legacy of his former colleague and friend is personal. "Believe me, in the beginning of Memphis nobody was paying attention, then it became such a success. Now it’s easy for everyone to celebrate the past. For me, it was more interesting that I was somewhere else investing in something for the future.” What would Sottsass have thought of the retrospective? “To be diplomatic,” Cibic laughs, “I must say I don’t know.”