Portrait of Fábio Salvador

Design Manager · Industrial Design

Team Leadership · Client & Supplier Management · Project Delivery

Available for part-time & interim engagements

Industrial designer and design studio founder with 12+ years leading multidisciplinary teams from concept through mass production. A decade running Makers Department sits alongside managing a global dealership rollout for McLaren Automotive and lecturing in creative project management at Kingston University. Comfortable owning both the commercial side of a project — client negotiation, budgets, contracts, risk and liability — and the creative one: DFM, certifications, and design rights and patents. Equally experienced building, hiring and training design teams. I offer part-time and interim support to design studios that need hands-on team management, design mentorship, or senior oversight of project delivery, backed by a network of vetted suppliers and freelancers built over 12+ years.

End-to-End Industrial Design

Concept to manufacturing, end to end.

Design & Project Manager

Coordinating designers, engineers, suppliers and clients on-brief and on schedule.

Supply Chain Sourcing

Supplier relationships and production oversight through an established network.

Team & Studio Management Design Mentorship & Training Client Negotiation & Contracts Supply Chain Sourcing Budget & Commercial Management DFM & Certifications IP, Design Rights & Patents CAD — SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Rhino 3D Printing — FDM, SLA & SLS
Founder & Studio Lead Oct 2015 – Present

Makers Department | London, United Kingdom & Lisbon, Portugal

  • Founded and built an industrial design consultancy, hiring, managing and mentoring an in-house team, for clients including McLaren Automotive, Joseph Joseph and Unilever, and startups including Valkyrie Industries, Sensate and Flowbio.
  • Set and held quality standards across every project, linking client, design team, engineers and manufacturing partners through an established Portuguese network.
  • Owned the commercial side of client relationships — negotiation, budgets, risk/liability — and advised on DFM, certifications and IP strategy.
Operations Manager (progressed from Junior Industrial Designer) Feb 2013 – Dec 2023

Hyphen Design Ltd | Client: McLaren Automotive | Concurrent engagement

  • Joined as Junior Industrial Designer, working on high-end client work including Bosch Appliances, McLaren and TangleTeezer; progressed to Operations Manager on McLaren's dealership configuration tools programme.
  • Ran supplier coordination, budgets and production oversight, delivering tools to 100+ dealerships worldwide, then continued as a retained consultant.
University Lecturer, Creative Project Management Jan 2023 – Dec 2023

Kingston University | Part-time

  • Trained design, art direction and marketing students in project management and design thinking, guiding teams through live briefs with clients including Gov.uk and the BBC.
Designer and Shareholder Jul 2020 – Dec 2025

Innotrend Ltd, trading as PurePods | Self-employed | Greater London, United Kingdom

  • Designed and engineered water-filtering products, managing overseas manufacturing partners through prototyping and scale-up.
  • Ran day-to-day operations: sales channels, inventory, customer service and marketing.
Industrial Design Freelancer Oct 2013 – Oct 2015

Freelance | London, United Kingdom

  • Delivered independent design work for international clients, including multi-year support to Magnitone and packaging development for Re-Cleanse.
  • Worked within a small engineering team on the UK's first self-balancing personal transport product.

Earlier: Product Design Intern, Paul Cocksedge Studio (2012–2013); Exhibition Assistant, MUDE Lisboa (2010–2011).

Design Degree (Licenciatura), Industrial and Product Design

Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, 2008–2011

SolidWorks 3D CAD — Level B (Advanced)

2010

Portuguese (Native)
English (Full Professional Proficiency)
Spanish (Proficient)
French (Elementary)

McLaren Automotive Joseph Joseph Unilever Bosch Appliances Victoria and Albert Museum Royal Air Force Wavetec Valkyrie Industries Sensate Flowbio Gov.uk BBC
Download CV (PDF) ↓