James Irvine, Milano

The London born designer, James Irvine has been working in Milan since 1984, first as design consultant for Olivetti under the direction of Ettore Sottsass and Michele de Lucchi. Later he was responsible for the industrial design division up to 1997 as partner at Sottsass Associati. Simultaneously he founded his own studio in 1993. Besides his work on products in the tableware and kitchenware sector he was mainly involved in the design of furniture and lighting, technical products and urban transport systems such as the new “EXPO” city bus for Hannover.

James Irvine’s designs are characterised by his personal use of shapes. They are geometrically simple formal ideas that he applies in a very appealing “soft” manner.