James Irvine
James Irvine - Designer, who also designs city buses
James Irvine was born in London in 1958. After completing his studies at the Royal College of Arts in London in 1984, he moved to Milan. From 1984 to 1992 he was a design consultant in the Milan design studio of Olivetti. He designed industrial products under the direction of Michele de Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass. As part of a cultural exchange organized by Olivetti, he worked for a year at the Toshiba Design Centre in Tokyo, conducting design studies for various industrial products.
Upon his return to Milan, James Irvine opened his own design studio in 1988. From 1993 to 1997, James Irvine, in addition to working in his own studio, was a successful partner of Sottsass Associati Milan, where he was responsible for the industrial design department. In 1999 James Irvine designed a city bus for the public transport company in Hannover. Mercedes Benz built 131 buses according to Irvine's ideas. Irvine's design studio in Milan has worked extremely successfully with various internationally renowned companies such as Alfie, B&B Italia, Canon Japan, Foscarini, Whirlpool, WMF and Olivetti. For Artemide he designed, among others, the filigree Float or the puristic floor lamp One-Two.
His collaboration with Thonet was also successful. Here Irvine created the bentwood chairs A660 or the bar stool S 123 H. For Magis, Irvine designed the witty stacking chairs Centomila Sgabello. James Irvine was elected "Royal Designer for Industry" by the Royal Society of Arts in Londeon. Today Irvine is professor for industrial design in Karlsruhe.
