James Dyson interview: "People think designers have Eureka moments where they come up with a brilliant idea and the rest is easy. The reality is far less glamorous". . .

Which other designers would you regard as your peers?I'm lucky enough to work with 420 like-minded engineers. Our motivation is frustration. We pull things apart, get our hands dirty, and generally question the way things work. And why they don't. It's the only way to come up with a product that works significantly better than the ones it replaces. The best part of my day is going down to the labs and talking over problems with the other engineers.

Apart from your own products is there a product that epitomises the strategic importance and impact of good design?The Mini. Conceived by Alec Issigonis on a lazy afternoon in Cannes in 1959. Sketching his idea on a napkin, the design was radically different and beautifully simple. He placed the engine transversely to drive the front wheels. This enabled him to have a short bonnet and an interior large enough for four adults. My Mini came in handy in the 1960s driving from rural Norfolk to the excitement of London.

Do you have any innovations you would like to make to ensure design gets more priority?Well I think engineering is having an identity crisis. Here in the UK we produce 24,000 engineering graduates a year; tiny compared with China's 450,000 or India's 300,000. Most young people want careers in the media. We've to do more to get young people to take up science and engineering - it's one of the reasons we want to open our school of design innovation. Teenagers will use their brains and their hands at the same time - real problem solving.

Is there a danger that when companies listen to the design message what they really hear is marketing - ie new and fancier ways of packaging a product? Is there an innate conflict between this superficial approach to design and your own?Dyson machines have often been called bright and funky, even ugly, but every knob and hose on our vacuum cleaners has a specific purpose. I think some manufacturers are guilty of "empty styling". Their products might look nice, but don't work properly. But people get wise and ultimately care more for performance.

What companies do you think suffer a design disadvantage and are plainly crying out for better design?Retro design is a step back. Pardon the pun. One of our competitors recently brought out a vacuum cleaner that was a remake of one of its 1950s machines. Says it all really.

Should designers begin their careers with an education in strategic thinking?Everything is "strategic thinking" these days. For us strategic thinking involves making lots of mistakes. I've always thought that children should be marked by the amount of mistakes they make at school because it is through these mistakes that we come up with new ideas. Some people think designers have Eureka moments where they come up with a brilliant idea and the rest is easy. Unfortunately the reality is far less glamorous; it's the step by step process of testing your ideas, making mistakes, learning from them and starting again.

What specific aesthetics do you try to bring to a product like the Airblade or vacuum market? Are aesthetics a primary concern?Aesthetics are secondary. How a product actually works is crucial. The way our vacuum cleaners and the Airblade look was determined by how they work first and foremost. When I was developing the original Dual Cyclone machines everyone told me it would be a bad idea to have a clear bin because nobody wants to see the dirt they are picking up. Now it's become a trademark of Dyson machines. People love seeing the grime it's picked up; it shows it's working.

Are you ever approached to design for other companies now? Is it something you would contemplate?I worked on the Chelsea flower show a few years ago. It was great to collaborate with Jim Honey to come up with something fresh and different. We came up with the concept of the "wrong" garden which was based on unconventional planting and design-led features, and basically we turned everything upside down. He also created this lovely lush garden full of reds, blues and purples, it was all very surreal.

How is the Airblade going in the market?Very well. People had been grudgingly accepting of useless hand dryers. We'd all be lying if said we hadn't wiped our hands on our jeans after trying to dry them under a conventional hand dryer. Airblade dries them with clean air and dries them in just 10 seconds. It's going extremely well in the UK and Ireland. USA next, then Europe. Go to the Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin if you want to have a go.

The Airblade dryer

Hand dryers are not a popular way to dry hands even though around 10,000 units are sold each year in Ireland. The problem is they are inefficient at their only task: drying.

They are also rarely used where hygiene is at a premium, such as in hospitals.

In the course of designing a vacuum cleaner for the lucrative Japanese market, Dyson developed a new digital motor that provides energy savings of over 80 per cent compared to conventional motors. The company spent 10 years perfecting it.

The degree of efficiency and miniaturisation led Dyson to use the digital motor in the hand-dryer market.

"Instead of painfully slow evaporation, the Dyson Airblade creates a high speed sheet of air, which gently squeegees your hands dry," says Dyson. "It's very quick and it's very clean."

The company's aim is to introduce it into hospitals and other hygiene sensitive settings and expand the market.

Top of the line dryers currently cost around €500. Dyson's sells at around €850.

It's another example of the price premium Dyson products command.