james irvine

james irvine. 'I think that a project has to have a good strong idea behind it', he says ........................................................................................................

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james irvine

was born in London in 1958 and graduated from
kingston polytechnic design school (1981 BA) and
the royal college of art (1984 MA). in 1984 he moved
to milan. from 1984 to 1992 he was a design consultant
for olivetti designing industrial products under the
direction of michele de lucchi and ettore sottsass.
In 1988 he opened a private design studio. clients included
cappellini, cbi, brf and scp. from 1993 to 1997 in parallel
to private studio, he was a partner of sottsass associati
and was responsible for the industrial design group.
In 1993 he had his first personal exhibition at the royal college
of art stockholm. in 1999 he completed the design of the new
city bus for the hannover transport system üstra. 131 buses
have been built by mercedes benz. today his design studio in
milan is working with various internationally renowned companies
including artemide, b&b italia, wmf, alfi, magis, whirlpool,
arabia, mabeg and canon japan.

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http://www.james-irvine.com
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more info on the design work of james irvine
http://www.acmestudio.com
http://www.stadtbus.de
http://www.bebitalia.it
http://www.alfi.de
http://www.de-lightedbycorian.com
http://www.swedese.se
http://www.artemide.com
http://www.magisdesign.it
http://www.gosputnik.com
http://www.danesemilano.com

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we met james irvine in his milanese studio on june 4, 2003.
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what is the best moment of the day?
lunchtime, I like to take a break.

what kind of music do you listen to at the moment?
its the usual mix of stuff, but I'm getting more and more into classical music.

do you listen to the radio?
living in italy, I've found that the radio is full of advertising.
there is only one station that I like to listen to, lifegate,
it has no advertising. the rest of it is a real 'violenza'.

what books do you have on your bedside table?
a biography of jacques tati.

do you read design magazines?
I tend to flick through them, unless there's an article about me,
then I read it (laughs).

where do you get news from? newspapers?
much to my shame I watch the tv news in the morning,
canale 5 which I don't like, but at least I find out what's going on.
I buy the tribune and the guardian also.

do you notice how women are dressing?
do you have any preferences?
of course I'm interested in how women are dressing,
I spend the whole day looking at them walking down the street.
I was in barcelona last week and I must say that spanish women
dress better than italians, they're less self conscious about
their clothing. I like it when a women is less self conscious.

what kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?
I wear nothing too sporty, I don't feel relaxed. I actually end up
wearing a lot of things I don't like very much,... but it's too
complicated to explain now.

do you have any pets?
I would love to have a cat, but I travel too much.

when you were a child, what did you want to be?
I wanted to be an entemologist.
I decided to be a designer after I bought a motorcycle,
took it apart and put it together again. I started to fall in love
with three dimensions and form and how things work.

where do you work on your designs and projects?
funny enough, quite often in restaurants.

who would you like to design something for?
I'd like to design an ecological scooter, but I doubt it will
ever happen. I'd like to work in the public area, finding
solutions for problems in the city, but my studio is small
and they don't trust smaller studios for projects like these.
I think urban problems are the most interesting things to do.
we spend time designing things which don't solve any
problems, like designing another chair, or something like that,
rather than confronting real problems.

do you discuss your work with architects and designers?
all the time, I have friends from all over the world and every week
we discuss work, politics, quality of life, food, whatever.

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
I have absolutely no idea and no desire to describe myself.
I am interested in humanistic aspects, but you can't work with morals.
I try to design things that are true to themselves and
not too influenced by marketing factors, things are for people,
because my clients are people, not industry.

can you describe an evolution in your work from your first projects
to the present day?
the more I work, the more I realize that I have a point from
where I start: some people think that design is a sort of
styling thing, but I don't see it like that. I think it is cutting away
all the bullshit and starting from the basics. it is one of the
oldest tricks in the book, it is starting from scratch,
starting from what I know and how I feel it should be and doing
the object how I would do it. it has nothing to do with minimalism,
more to do with cutting away to find the true strengths of my idea.

do you sketch by hand or use a computer?
well, I think about it first, it is a more mental picture,
then I sketch it and give the sketch to my assistants and they draw it.
I usually wait until they're finished, I'm not on their back
saying change this while they do it. it is quite interesting how
they interprete a sketch. I don't like too much technical drawing.
my job is to communicate the basic feel of something.
the proportions are based on logical reasons ...
but fundamentally I think that a project has to have a good
strong idea behind it, it doesn't need to be embellished so much,
it just needs to be right.

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what project has given you the most satisfaction?
every project has given me a different kind of satisfaction,
perhaps the most satisfying was designing a bus for the
city of hannover, built by mercedes, because it was an
urban project which hopefully made a lot of people more happy.

is there any designer and/or architect, you appreciate a lot?
yes, hundreds of them for different reasons. pierluigi nervi,
enzo mari, jasper morrison, alberto meda, ettore sottass...
they're all heroes, I have a lot of heroes, not just one,
also charles eames, salvatore ferragamo, craig ellwood.
there are'nt any musicians or artists - heroes for me right now.
I love actors, susan sarandon, for example.
I always think about how they're real people,
even though they're acting. I find it fascinating.

any advice for the young ?
put priority on things.
don't think too much about being rich,
because that isn't what makes you happy.
the biggest value, the most important thing is freedom
above all, and freedom from other poeple.

quicktime clip
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on the news they said that italians are afraid of unemployment,
criminality and pollution. what are you afraid of regarding
the future?
all three of those, all societies should be concerned about them.
if I were italian I'd be very very worried about the political situation,
the concept of democracy, control, freedom of the press.
I don't think this is just an italian problem, its a british problem,
an american problem...the reality is that the power distribution
at the moment is really weird and quite dangerous.