Academic Staff > Academic Staff > Hagai Zakai
Hagai Zakai is an employee at GTIIT for teaching design related subjects in the General Elective program.
Product Designer, Virtual Reality Expert, lecturer at the M.Des in Digital Game Design and Development, and at the B.A program in Interior Building and Environment Design, Shenkar.
Hagai Zakai is a designer and technical artist. He holds a B.Des in Industrial Design from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. His research-oriented thesis exploring the usage of industrial manufacturing processes to create one-off objects won him an honor citation in 2007. Since his graduation, Hagai hasspecialized in 3D visualizations in the fields of product and architecture. In addition, he has worked as project manager and product designer at the industry-leading company Monkey Business, known for its quirky design products. He was involved in the creation of successful products with renowned Israeli designers like Yaacov Kaufman. Hagai’s products are sold at boutique and museum shops and his work has been recently displayed in the exhibition “Forms of Smiles” at the Holon Design Museum. In addition to professional endeavors, Hagai is also known for his work as the director of the popular documentary series Anshei Hachok (Cops).
In 2015 Hagai joined the department of Interior Building and Environment Design at Shenkar, where he established the Toolbox class. This six-course program covers topics from hand-drawn sketches to parametric design tools and is meant to provide a comprehensive skillset for future designers. since joining the M.Des program in Digital Game Design and Development in Shenkar, he has been developing, expanding and teaching a VR course exploring possible translations of physical experience to VR. The course questions fundamental issues in contemporary VR experience. With Prof. Yael Moria, Hagai has also developed a course examining the role of architectural methodology in virtual environment design.
Hagai’s Personal work explores tools and workflows interlacing 2D and 3D work, manual and procedural as well as virtual and physical. His focus in VR as a medium for art / design creation, and exhibition.
