Styling

After a brief but promising career as a fashion illustrator, Raymond Loewy dedicated his talent to the field of industrial design. Loewy's creative genius was innate, and his effect on the industry was immediate. He literally revolutionized the industry, working as a consultant for more than 200 companies and creating product designs for everything from cigarette packs and refrigerators, to cars and spacecrafts. Loewy lived by his own famous MAYA principle - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. He believed that, "The adult public's taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm." A popular lecturer as well, Loewy spoke at institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the University of Leningrad. He founded three design companies: Raymond Loewy and Associates, New York; Raymond Loewy International, London; and Compagnie de I'Esthetique Industrielle, Paris. His writings include The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937), the autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) and Industrial Design (1951). A global presenceRaymond Loewy launched his career in industrial design in 1929 when Sigmund Gestetner, a British manufacturer of duplicating machines, commissioned him to improve the appearance of a mimeograph machine. In three days 28-year-old Loewy designed the shell that was to encase Gestetner duplicators for the next 40 years. In the process, he helped launch a profession that has changed the look of America.The Gestetner duplicator was the first of countless items transformed by streamlining, a technique that Loewy is credited with originating. Calling the concept "beauty through function and simplification," Loewy spent over 50 years streamlining everything from postage stamps to spacecrafts. His more famous creations include the Lucky Strike cigarette package, the GG1 and S1 locomotives, the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle.

the John F. Kennedy memorial postage stamp, the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V, and Skylab, the Greyhound bus and logo, the Shell International logo, the Exxon logo, the U.S. Postal Service emblem, a line of Frigidaire refrigerators, ranges, and freezers, and the Studebaker Avanti, Champion and Starliner. By 1951, his industrial design firm was so prolific that he was able to claim, "the average person, leading a normal life, whether in the country, a village, a city, or a metropolis, is bound to be in daily contact with some of the things, services, or structures in which R.L.A [Raymond Loewy Associates] was a party during the design or planning stage."

Raymond Loewy (November 5, 1893 - July 14, 1986) was one of the best known industrial designers of the 20th century. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States, where he influenced countless aspects of American life.
Loewy became a U.S. citizen in 1938. He married Viola Erickson in 1948. They had a daughter, Laurence. Laurence Loewy continues to manage her father's interests in the United States.

1 Early life
2 Early work
3 Pennsylvania Railroad
4 Studebaker
5 Loewy designs
6 Bibliography
7 References


Early life
Loewy was born in Paris in 1893. An early accomplishment was the design of a successful model aircraft, which won the James Gordon Bennett Cup in 1908. By the following year, he was selling the plane, named the Ayrel. He served in the French Army during World War I, attaining the rank of captain. Loewy was wounded in combat and received the Croix de Guerre. He boarded a ship to America in 1919, with only his French officer's uniform and forty dollars in his pocket.

Early work

Hoover Vacuum Company Logo by Raymond Loewy
In Loewy's early years in the U.S., he lived in New York and found work as a window designer for department stores, including Macy's, in addition to working as a fashion illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In 1929 he received his first industrial design commission, modernizing the appearance of a duplicating machine by Gestetner. Further commissions followed, including work for Westinghouse, the Hupp Motor Company (the Hupmobile styling), and styling the Coldspot refrigerator for Sears-Roebuck. His design firm opened a London office in the mid 1930s.

Pennsylvania Railroad
In 1937 Loewy established a relationship with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his most notable designs for the firm were their passenger locomotives. He designed a streamlined shroud for K4s Pacific #3768 to haul the newly redesigned 1938 Broadway Limited (also by Loewy). He followed by styling the experimental S1 locomotive, as well as the T1 class. Later, at the PRR's request, he restyled Baldwin's diesels with a distinctive "sharknose" reminiscent of the T1. While he did not design the famous GG1 electric locomotives, he improved its appearance by recommending welded construction, rather than riveted, and a pinstriped paint scheme to highlight its smooth contours.
In addition to locomotive design, Loewy's studios performed many kinds of design work for the PRR, including stations, passenger car interiors, and advertising materials.

Studebaker
Raymond Loewy's 1930s era Studebaker logo
Loewy began his long and productive relationship with Studebaker in 1939 Loewy and Associates was contracted to provide design services for the automaker during the waning years of the Great Depression. His designs first began appearing on late 1930s model Studebakers. Studebaker also adopted his clean, uncluttered logo design, replacing one in use since the turn of the century.
During World War II, government restrictions on in-house design departments at Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler prevented official work on civilian automobiles. Because Loewy's firm was independent of the nation’s fourth-largest automobile producer, no such restrictions applied. This permitted Studebaker to launch the first all-new postwar automobile in 1947, two years ahead of the "Big Three". His team developed an advanced design, featuring flush front fenders and clean rearward lines. They also created the Starlight body, featuring a rear window system wrapping 180 degrees around the rear seat.

1953 Studebaker Commander Starlight coupe
In addition to the iconic bullet-nosed Studebakers of 1950 and 1951, the team created the 1953 Studebaker line, highlighted by the Starliner and Starlight coupes (publicly credited to Loewy, they were actually the work of his deputy, Virgil Exner), which have consistently ranked as one of the best-designed automobiles of the 1950s in lists compiled since by Collectible Automobile, Car and Driver, and Motor Trend. At the time, however, the Starlight was ridiculed as bizarre (very similar from front or back), while the '53 Starliner, today recognized as "one of the most beautiful cars ever made",was almost as radical in appearance as the 1934 Airflow, and beset by production problems, besides. To brand the new line, Loewy also modernized Studebaker’s logo again by applying the “Lazy S” element.

His final commission of the 1950s for Studebaker was the transformation of the Starlight and Starliner coupes into the Hawk series for the 1956 model year.
He was called back to Studebaker by the firm's new president President, Sherwood Egbert, to design the Avanti. In the spring of 1961, Egbert hired him to help energize Studebaker's soon-to-be released line of 1963 passenger cars to attract younger buyers. He agreed to take the job, despite the short 40-day schedule allowed to produce a finished design and scale model.

1963 Studebaker Avanti
He quickly recruited a team consisting of experienced designers, including former Loewy employees John Ebstein and Bob Andrews, and Tom Kellogg, a young student from Art Center. The team sequestered themselves in a house in Palm Springs, leased for the purpose. Each team member had a role: Andrews and Kellogg handled sketching, Ebstein oversaw the project, and Loewy served as the creative director and offered advice.
Once the Avanti hit the market, it became an instant classic and has many devotees today; others consider its front end styling peculiar. It has been produced in limited quantities over the years by a succession of small independent companies, never with real commercial success.

Loewy designs
Air France Concorde (interior), 1975
Air Force One (blue, white, & chrome livery), also applied in 2006 to Union Pacific diesel locomotive #4141 to honor George H. W. Bush (the 41st president)
Baldwin Locomotive Works Model DR-4-4-15 "Sharknose" diesel locomotives
Chubb logo, 1968
Coca-Cola Redesigned original contour bottle in 1955, eliminating Coca-Cola embossing & adding vivid white Coke & Coca-Cola lettering, designed & introduced first king-size or slenderized bottles, that is, 10, 12, 16 and 26 oz. the same year. Designed the first Coke steel can with diamond design in 1960.
Coop logo
Exxon logo, 1972
The O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia, 1947 (renovation)
Fairbanks-Morse "Erie-built" and "C-liner" models, Model H-10-44 and H-20-44, and early Model H-12-44, H-12-46, H-15-44, H-16-44, H-16-66, and H-24-66 diesel locomotives
Farmall tractor letter series, 1939-1954
Filben Maestro jukebox of 1947
Frigidaire refrigerators, ranges, and freezers
Gestetner mimeograph duplicating machine shell, 1929
Greyhound Scenicruiser, 1954
Hallicrafters Model S-38 shortwave radio, 1946 [1]
IBM 026 key punch, 1949
Leisurama homes
Lucky Strike package, 1940
NASA's Skylab space station, first interior design standards for space travel including a porthole to allow a view of earth from space, interior designs and color schemes, a private area for each crew member to relax and sleep, food table and trays, coveralls, garment storage modules, designs for waste management
New York City Transit Authority R40 car, whose slant-front design raised safety concerns and had to be retrofitted with guide rails.
Northern Pacific Railway, Vista-Dome North Coast Limited (exterior color scheme and interiors), 1954.
Panama Line: Loewy designed the interiors for a trio of American-built passenger-cargo liners named the SS Ancon, SS Cristobal and SS Panama.
Pennsylvania Railroad:
PRR K4s steam locomotive
PRR S1 steam locomotive
PRR T1 steam locomotive
PRR GG1 electric locomotive, 1936
Postage stamp

Concept sketch of the 1963 Avanti by Loewy
Five cents John Kennedy, 1964
Sears products, including 1935 Sears Coldspot
Shell logo, 1971
Studebaker
1947 Studebaker Champion
1953 Studebaker Commander
1963 Studebaker Avanti
Hillman Minx Series one onward.
the Wahl-Eversharp Symphony fountain pen.
The International Harvester "IH" "Man on a tractor" logo.

Bibliography
The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937)
Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) ISBN 0-8018-7211-1 autobiography
Industrial Design (1979) ISBN 0-87951-260-1

References
^ Setright, L.J.K., "Loewy: When styling became industrial design", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 11, p.1211.
^ Ludvigsen, Karl, "Studebaker: Money--the Root of all Evil", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 19, p.2227.
^ Ludvigsen, p.2227.
^ Ludvigsen, p.2227.

Extras:http://www.raymondloewy.com/images/pdf/vogue2007.pdf

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