James Miho was born in Gridley, CA in 1933. During World War II, his family was interned at Tule Lake on the border of California and Oregon. He fought in the Korean War and in 1955 decided to pursue a career in design. After ArtCenter, he began his career at N.W. Ayer & Son in Philadelphia, where he collaborated on the influential "Great Ideas of Western Man" ad campaign for the Container Corporation of America.

He art directed the famous "Imagination" series of themed paper sample brochures for Champion Papers while working in Chicago for Needham, Harper & Steers. His firm, James Miho Incorporated, created memorable designs for top clients such as Chrysler Corporation and Atlantic Richfield.

As a design educator, Miho served as chair of the Graphic Design department at ArtCenter from 1988 to 1996. He also served as chair of Multimedia Design at Innovative Design Labs of Samsung in Seoul. Miho was a 2004 AIGA Medalist, and in 2018 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from ArtCenter.

ArtCenter College of Design 2018