My childhood inspiration came from watching car and motor cycle racing in the late sixties & early seventies.

This era saw more colourful liveries created for race cars as they started to carry the first forms of corporate sponsorship.

I was inspired to pursue art as a career and graduated from Art College with a degree in graphic design. The subjects for the final year exhibition were chosen by the examining staff, but one piece could be a personal choice and as I rode a motor cycle it seemed logical to design and paint a helmet for myself.

After a few years working in graphics, I still continued to paint helmets for a hobby. The requests started to increase until it was impossible to achieve what was being asked in my spare time, so in 1984 Mike Fairholme Designs was established.

In many ways achievement is directly reflected in the success of the driver wearing the helmet. Hopefully the list will continue to grow, but to date there have been over sixty-five individual drivers that have raced in F1 Grand Prix. This includes four World F1 champions and more than a dozen different GP winners. The list also includes Champions in Champ Car, ALMS, F3000, F3 and Touring Cars along with winners at some of the World’s greatest races. The Indy 500, Le Mans 24 Hours, Monaco Grand Prix, Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours & Petit Le Mans.

Others have chosen our services too with TV, film and advertising work as well as musicians & artists.Perhaps the most notable wearers of MFD painted helmets, were the Royal Princes William and Harry, when they raced karts for fun in the mid 90’s