James Irvine studied design at Kingston Polytechnic in London before completing his master's degree 1984 at the Royal College of Art in the same city whereafter he moved to Milan, Italy.
From 1984 to 1992 Irvine worked as design consultant for Olivietti design studio under the direction of Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass. In 1987 he worked in Tokyo at the Toshiba Design Center and at his return to Milan in 1988 Irvine founded his own design studio.
In parallel to his own studio Irvine was a partner of Sottsass Associati from 1993 to 1997, responsible for the studio’s industrial design group. Here Irvine designed the body of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro bus to the city of Hannover in Germany, in preparation for the Expo 2000.
Irvines first clients in his own design studio were Italian manufacturers Cappellini and SCP and he later worked for Thonet (where he worked as creative director), Artemide, Foscarini and Muji (where he acted as a design consultant). Irvine also had a furniture design collaboration with Konstanin Grcic, that commenced in 2009. For the Swedish company CBI Irvine designed the couch JI1 sofabed in the 1990s.
In 2004 Irvine was the guest of honour at the fair Interieur in Kortrijk and was elected Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts in London. Three years later he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Design from Kingston University. James Irvine passed a way at the age 54 in 2013. His studio, Studio Irvine in Milan is still active.
