Ross McBride was raised, and now resides in the United States, but has lived most of his life in Japan. Ross earned his bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the California Institute of the Arts, and upon graduation in 1985, moved promptly to Tokyo. Initially after arriving in Japan, Ross furthered his graphic design studies as a research student at Nippon Daigaku (Japan Univ.). Before starting his own graphic design practice in 1991, he had the honor of working at Igarashi Studio under the auspices of Takenobu Igarashi who was then the acting president of AGI. Over time however, his interests grew in product and furniture design. In January 2000, K.K. Normal was established in order to manage such client-based projects. In 2006, Ross created the Normal Timepieces watch brand which has been his main business to date.

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, Normann Copenhagen, and Takata Lemnos.

Ross McBride has been greatly influenced by pioneering mid-century American design, as well as the Japanese sense of minimalism, and craftsmanship. In today’s digital world, he sees a reflection of mid-century modern’s spirit to experiment with the new materials and techniques. Many of the things we are able to produce today weren’t even conceivable a few years ago without recent developments. From his extended time in Japan, he brings a fascination with their cultural history of reductive design and their ingrained dedication to quality.