A chance encounter with Jake Dyson led to an assessment and subsequently a job at Dyson as a Graduate Design Engineer, for Fred Howe. Now Dyson’s Senior Design Manager for haircare and the man behind the development of Dyson’s latest Airwrap Co-anda2x multi-styler, Fred started at Dyson’s Malmesbury headquarters and has since worked at Dyson’s Malaysia development and testing facilities, the Singapore Technology Centre, Shanghai’s Technology Lab and the Philippines Advanced Manufacturing facility, before returning back to north Wiltshire. Here we chat to him about everything from farming to making his own smart home lighting system.
While at university, I tried to start my own consultancy.
My ambition was having no boss and crafting my own destiny. I did get a lot of clients, but I had no credibility. I’d always show them the really exciting idea that might have taken a bit longer and needed more investment, and the quick win… and they’d always go for the quick one. It was deflating, really – every time I had a game-changing idea it was left just sitting there.
I started at Dyson as a graduate design engineer 11 years ago.
I went to the New Designers show in London to exhibit some of my work, and was unknowingly speaking to Jake Dyson, who was walking around. I had an email the next day asking if I’d like to go to Dyson and talk about opportunities they had. It was quite a rigorous assessment but I managed to get the job. It was a bit of a pipe-dream to work at Dyson, so for it to land on a plate like that was quite a surprise!
I used to break stuff a lot as a kid.
More often than not, I couldn’t put back together what I took apart – I was just curious about seeing what was inside and how things worked. It wasn’t a very popular hobby with my parents, coming in and finding they couldn’t put the TV on because the remote control was broken, but I think that’s what’s so special about young minds: uncompromised curiosity.
My dad got me a Dyson Ballbarrow for helping at the farm.
I used to love helping out on the smallholding farm that we had. I was always collecting molehill soil for the garden; my dad saw me struggling along, as a tiny kid, trying to push this huge wheelbarrow of soil… and then turned up with a Dyson Ballbarrow. It was one of James’s first products and is one of my favourite designs he’s ever done. It was so pure: it didn’t market add-on features, it just did its core job really well. It had a big ball that glided along the floor, instead of a wheel wedging itself into the mud. That was a penny-drop moment for me: instead of being criticised for being curious and breaking things, here’s someone who has turned it into a career, solving problems.
The Supersonic hairdryer was my first project.
When I walked through the doors at Dyson, someone put a prototype into my hands and said: “So, you’re going to work on this.” I was trying to work out where the dust got sucked in and ejected, and I was l like, “This is not a vacuum cleaner, is it?” and he was like, “Nope!” It had two handles at the time, it was like a bazooka – it was very early on, and transformed quite a lot over the next few years.
I’m proud of the new Airwrap Co-anda2x.
What was challenging was trying to outdo the Airwrap, a good product to start with. We did go around in circles, restarting the project about three times because we thought it wasn’t a significant enough stepchange to justify it – from an investment and time perspective but also for consumers, as they aren’t going to buy another product if it’s too similar. So it’s got twice the pressure, it’s 30% more powerful, it’s super-fast, it’s packed full of sensors yet it’s smaller. It’s the opposite of compromise: get all that stuff in there but still make the whole product smaller.
I’ve worked abroad for much of my career.
I never thought I’d be at Dyson as long as I have been, but there is lots of adventure available. I’ve spent seven out of the last 11 years in south-east Asia. I’ve been three months in the UK now, returning from the Philippines. I was there for four years and that’s where I met my partner.
Dyson has given Filipinos the opportunity to design some of the best products in the world.
The Philippines is a magical place. It’s still a developing country but they are the most heartwarming people: in four years I didn’t once hear a single person moan or get angry. There’s torrential rain there at the moment and they are just playing in the water, making rafts! We started with seven people there when I landed, and Dyson has now got a new four-acre facility with nearly 700 people.
I’ve renovated my own higgledy-piggledy cottage, made most of my own furniture and added a few mod cons…
I live in a 200-year-old cottage, which is very small. I love the simplicity and quality of how old things are made, but there are lots of quirky home projects I’ve worked on inside… my girlfriend does three days per week working from home, so I turned the banister into this thing that folds up into a work table with flat lights. I did have an app to turn the lights on and off, but I didn’t think it worked very well so I made my own lighting system – it wasn’t as tricky as tiling my kitchen!
Swimming and running is how I relax.
When people describe meditation it’s like, “Get into a rhythm, focus on your breathing, clear your mind…” I find swimming and running are really good for that, although your heart rate is slightly elevated!
