WHAT I’VE LEARNED: JAMES DYSON
The veteran British industrial designer talks Japanese clothes, fear of failure and why he runs
Industrial designer, 70
‘The worst thing is to be satisfied. I am restless and not happy all the time. And
I know that satisfaction is unattainable in what I do and
that’s fine’
I always want to do something different. That’s just the way I’m built. I can’t bear to do the same thing twice. I could never ride a horse properly because trotting is just utterly repetitive. It’s just not in my psyche.
That doesn’t mean I have a short attention span. I’ll work as long as it takes and listen for as long as it takes, or go at a problem for ages. No-one will dare to interrupt or ask me to come down for supper or something if it’ll stop me doing it…
You have to be obsessive, but also know when to stop. Or at least to know when to stop boring people. The true answer is you’ll never really stop but there’s a point where what you’ve been working on is better than anything else. Even if you know you can do better.
When you do something you’re really proud of, get rid of it and try something else. I had a very good teacher at school who told me this. When you paint something on the canvas you really like, and you’re really proud of, scrape it off, because it’s going to blind you to what you do elsewhere in the painting. It’s actually true to almost anything else in life.
I’m not about to build a spaceship. I’m not trying to outdo anyone, I just want to do really good products and develop the technology in those products, because that’s the bit that really interests me: a product with better technology. So, I’m not trying to do an electric car, or a spaceship, I’m developing the technology and hope to make a really good car because that’s what I do, and that’s true with the hairdryer, and everything I’ve done, I hope.
Strangely, even though I’m not a Japanese, Issey Miyake’s clothes fit me very well. The same is true of Yamamoto. I go to other shops and things don’t fit me, so I tend to stick to them. I’m a funny sort of mixture in the clothes I wear. Issey Miyake is a friend and I’ve worn a lot of his clothes, and I designed his fashion show in Paris a few years ago.
It’s important what people wear. Because clothes feel different, it makes you feel different, it is a sort of expression of who you are. It’s true of children, too. To see them in wonderful clothes is good, but to see children in clothes that are not is slightly off-putting. I shouldn’t say that but it’s true. It’s uplifting to see good design.
I thought engineers were pretty boring, but I’d never met one. Then at the Royal College we had lectures from a structural engineer who talked about designing bridges. He explained their engineering in a very simple, clear way and I understood that, in fact, engineering is elegant, engineering is beautiful.
I’ve always thought experience is a bad thing because everything’s changing all the time. What works today or worked yesterday won’t necessarily work tomorrow. I would rather people approach everything in a naïve manner and look at the problem as though they’ve never seen such a problem before. I was told that when I was 20, and at 70 I fundamentally believe it.
I’m scared all the time and I jolly well should be. I’m afraid of failure, of the future. Am I doing the right thing? It’s in my stomach.
I have absolutely no fear of new technology taking over our jobs. New technology creates jobs. I have an eternal optimism about that. The more we’ve added things about artificial intelligence and software, electronics, the more people we’ve had to employ to cope with that broad range. For example, the production lines that makes all our [appliance] motors are totally automated. We want it like that because we want utter perfection.
The worst thing is to be satisfied. Iam restless and not happy all the time. And I know that satisfaction is unattainable in what I do and that’s fine.
Driving is one of the best ways to switch off. I’m quite good at switching off. Deirdre, my wife, is very good at listening to what’s going on and then quickly moving on to other things. She’s been a fantastic support and she’s an artist and designer in her own right so she understands the need for a project and the enthusiasm and frustrations that come with it.
Electric cars are going to change the world. I’m not a car obsessive and that’s not why we’re doing one. I want to do a car a) because I want to get rid of nasty fumes and b) because it happens to use the very technologies I’ve been developing in a serious way. Even new cars today are polluting and if we can make a better car that will be good.
My children are much better people than I am. They’ve got a huge number of qualities I don’t have, but it’s lovely to see that.
I’m probably a better grandfather than father. Just because I was travelling so much. I spent a lot of time with them, playing with them and doing things with them, but when you travel a lot it’s not just the time you’re gone, it’s the effect on your circadian rhythm — you get back home and you’re exhausted.
Routines are one of life’s atrocities. I hate routine so I try and change that as much as I can. When it comes to lifestyle, I try to eat healthily and drink reasonably healthily and go for walks. I would run every day if I had the time but I run twice a week.
Why do I like running? I didn’t say I like it. I know it’s doing good. I do love that sense of freedom, seeing the countryside, feeling the cold, the heat, the sun, the rain, being out against the elements running up and down hills. It clears your head.
I don’t want to do what anybody else is doing because that doesn’t give me any advantage, I’ve got to do what they’re not doing.
I feel really happy here in England. I was brought up in Norfolk, now I live in Gloucestershire. The climate and the sky and the smells in Provence probably make that my favourite place to go away to, though. The colours and the light, the sky, the smells and the wine — it helps.
There’s no one problem I’m especially proud of solving. I have had very little problems that have been just as difficult to solve as the ones that apparently made a huge difference. I don’t distinguish between the major ones and the minor ones because they can all be irritants. And there’s always more.