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, promptly moved to Tokyo where he has lived ever since. Upon 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. In 1991, Ross established his own graphic design practice. Gradually, Ross became more interested in product, and furniture design. In 1997 he initiated a move in this direction with his first public exhibition, "12 Timepieces", at the Ozone Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In January 2000, Normal Y.K. was established in order to manage Ross' product, furniture, and interior projects. Ross has exhibited at 100% Design London, Salone Satellite in Milan, ICFF New York, and Tokyo Designers Block where he won the Frame TDB Award 2003 for best installation design. He has also been awarded the IF Product Design Award 2010 (Germany), and the Red Dot Design Award for Product Design (Germany) 2010, as well as 3 Good Design awards (Japan). He has worked on projects for Duende, E&Y, Max Ray, Starbucks Japan, Water Studio, Sharp, Sony, World Co. Ltd., AU design project by KDDI. Normann Copenhagen, and Idea International.