Ross McBride

Ross McBride was born in the Northeastern United States in 1962. He earned his bachelor's degree in graphic design from the California Institute of the Arts, and upon graduation in 1985, moved promptly to Tokyo where he has lived ever since.

Initially after arriving in Japan, Ross furthered his graphic design studies as a research student at Japan University (Nippon Daigaku). He later worked in several design offices, including Igarashi Studio under the auspices of Takenobu Igarashi, then as acting president of the AGI. In 1991, Ross went independent to establish his own graphic design practice.

Gradually, Ross became more interested in product, and furniture design, and in 1977, began experimenting with such projects. In January 2000, K.K. Normal was established in order to manage Ross' product, furniture, and interior work.

Ross has exhibited at 100% Design London, Salone Satellite in Milan, ICFF New York, and Tokyo Designers Block, where he won the TDB Award 2003 for best installation design. He has also been honored with three Good Design awards (Japan), an IF Product Design award (Germany), and the Red Dot Design Award for Product Design (Germany). He has worked on projects for Duende, E&Y, Maxray, Starbucks Japan, Water Studio, Sharp, Sony, Design by AU, and Normann Copenhagen.