Fred Loo Melbourne, Australia

About me

Hand art to computers. Film to digital. Print to screens. Design studios to product teams. Product teams to a practice of my own.

Born

A Malaysian family

I am first generation in Australia.

Primary school

An ecology camp

Two of us were picked from the whole school. I learnt how to plant trees, what salinity levels meant and how to name Australian plants. There were nature walks and classes as well.

1993 to 1998

Balcatta Senior High School

An art scholarship. Four hours every Saturday, from year 6 to year 12, on oil painting, film photography, screen printing, watercolour, etching, ceramics and sculpture. In high school I did graphic design, film photography, art history and whatever other art electives I could.

1999 to 2002

Central Institute of Technology

Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design and Multimedia, double major in branding design and multimedia design. Student committee and exhibition organiser.

2002 to 2003

Prodigital Solutions, Perth

A friend's IT business. I helped build computers, install networks, and repair and upgrade machines. When clients asked for digital work, I built their websites.

2003 to 2005

Freelance design

Design and graphics for small to medium businesses around Perth.

2005

Cell Media

Interface design for mining-sector induction and auditing systems.

2006 to 2012

Worldwide Printing Solutions

Seven years, graphic designer to senior designer. Set up the Cannington digital printing hub and the franchisee online ordering system.

2012 to 2014

Photography

Captured weddings, portraits and streets of Perth, and studied for a Certificate IV in Photographic Imaging at Central Institute of Technology.

2014

Examiner Newspapers, and a camera

Newspaper graphic design, and a year photographing businesses for Google.

2014 to 2023

AssetOwl, Melbourne

Almost nine years: design, then user experience, then Senior Experience Designer.

2023 to 2025

Caregiving

Two years of full-time care for a terminally ill family member. The most important work on this page.

2025

Repurpose.io

Senior Product Designer. Designed version 3 of the product end to end in Figma, then delivered the version 4 front end with Claude Code. Nobody asked for a brand strategy; I wrote one anyway, and the company adopted it internally.

2026

Rational Magic

Left employment in March. Founded the practice, and started building small ventures of my own.

Now

Melbourne

I live here with my partner Sasha and our Border Collie, Florence. We walk every day, and the furniture has been rearranged for the sixth time.