Coachbult.com - Raymond Loewy



Raymond Loewy 1893-1986

The original 'designer as film star'. A French born engineer who worked as a window dresser before moving into industrial design in the late 1920's. His first success was restyling a duplicating machine for Gestetner - an example of extending product life and market without technical innovation. Best known for steam locomotives and refrigerators, he also designed logos for Exxon and Shell, and the interior of the Skylab. Contrary to rumor he did not design the Coca-Cola bottle, nor did President Kennedy ask him to work for NASA. This self-promotion tied in with his role as a pure stylist. Employed purely to 'streamline the sales curve', it is estimated that at the peak of his career over 75% of Americans came into contact with one or more of his products every day. Despite the rivalry between them, Henry Dreyfuss said that "Loewy is the best advert the profession has".

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The first serious efforts to integrate art and engineering for modern mass production were made in Germany in the early 1920s. This was in the Bauhaus design school, where the impetus came from the architect Walter Gropius; and the influence of this school was so great that by 1928 it was possible for no less than four separate industrial design consultancies to be established in New York. One of these four was that of Raymond Loewy, and he was immediately successful. The time was now right for a fresh approach to the design of industrial products; for a long time the mere facts of the car, the radio, the refrigerator and so on were sufficiently exciting to overwhelm any critical appreciation of the relationship of form to function in each, but large-volume production had made such strides (especially in the USA) that aesthetic appeal was fast becoming a major factor in marketing. Although cheap and humble products were most in need of the professional designer's services, it was the really big corporations who possessed the resources to test the validity of the claims made by Loewy's new profession: there- fore, his first important designs were of locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad and refrigerators for Sears Roebuck - these latter, sold as the Coldspot series, being so successful as to fix a style that remained universal for 30 years. Very soon it became clear that the criteria of the industrial designer could validly be applied to the motor-car, and by 1939 Raymond Loewy found himself put in charge of styling for the Studebaker Corporation. His first task was to clean up the existing designs and rid them of their more obvious failings, but during the ensuing war years it was hardly appropriate to risk anything that savored of iconoclasm. When the air had cleared, however, Loewy took his chance; the new Studebaker displaced all the old cliches of car design so effectively that before long it had become the model upon which the majority of others were fashioned.

When these 1946-7 Studebakers appeared, there were brief jibes from the skeptics who maintained that it was impossible to tell whether the cars were coming or going, but it did not take long for the world to be sure that this utterly novel styling was the coming thing: within a few years, it was commonplace for ordinary saloons to feature a 3-box, turret-top composition in which the rearmost box (the luggage boot) was as substantial as the foremost or engine compartment, and in which the area of glazing to provide vision to the rear was almost as great as that at the front of the turret within which the passengers were lodged. It was a re-proportioning that struck at the very roots of car styling and engineering, one which was perhaps more fundamental and successful than any since Maybach's 1901 Mercedes and Budd's 1916 Dodge, or before the 1959 Mini of Issigonis. With its unaccustomed symmetry and its wrap-round glass, the Studebaker set fashions that persist today. Alas, fashion is a commodity that defies accountancy. For a while Studebaker prospered, but it was not for long. It may even be questioned whether that brief prosperity was of Loewy's making, for as Alfred P. Sloan wrote in his outstanding book My Life with General Motors: 'With the resumption of production after World War Two it was necessary because of shortages, particularly of steel, for the industry to operate under material controls. These allocations favoured the smaller manufacturers (Kaiser-Frazer, Nash, Hudson, Studebaker and Packard) whose product presenta- tion at that time was concentrated in the medium-price range, with the result that the proportion of the market accounted for by their cars increased sharply. Competition in this period was largely con- fined to production - that is, whatever a manufacturer could make, customers were waiting to purchase. In the years after 1948, normal competitive influences began to reassert themselves in some areas of the market, and the sales of the smaller manufacturers in the medium-price group declined.'

Loewy, it seemed, had shot his bolt; and if the entire car business profited from his work, his immediate employers unfortunately did not. The last attempt to save Studebaker involved Loewy in one of his most dramatic designs, the 1962 Avanti. He was justifiably proud of this high-performance machine, with its ergonomically- integrated controls and functionally-coherent shape, for integra tion and cohesion in these things was the essence of his work - as may be seen by looking at his designs for Aga cookers. The American public was by no means educated or eclectic enough to buy the cars in adequate numbers, however, and the company foundered. A rescue operation mounted by a consortium of businessmen saved the Avanti for a limited production, which endured for another 1o years; but more important was the fact that its lines- subject to the mutations of the jeans era - were echoed in many commercially successful cars, including some current models. Once again, Loewy was proved correct in his assertions.

To be right once in car styling or design is a circumstance within the working life of many men. To be right twice is a privilege for very few; and Loewy, in his subsequent attempts, came nowhere near that mark of genius or conceptual larceny which is to be right three times. None of the other self-styled industrial designers, who now populate the lofting rooms or tramp the streets between them, has fared much better. The old adage about each man having only one design in him seems to apply perhaps more rigorously in body design than in any other branch of car creation. This need not be seen as a criticism of the work of all those men who have each produced one outstanding design: it is more a recognition of the validity of individual style.

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originally an article in the Saturday Evening Post magazine but Derham had the article printed in brochure form for distribution to their clients, the brochure is folded horizontally for mailing, very interesting in that this brochure was autographed at the bottom "To Bob Jones of Packard-from James P. Derham". Bob Jones was a stylist with Packard and friendly with James Derham. He had also worked for Raymond Loewy earlier. This brochure shows the 1941 Lincoln Continental with Custom Derham body designed Raymond Loewy. The color photograph shows Raymond Loewy leaning on the door and Mrs. Loewy sitting in the drivers seat. This car does exist today

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To a degree unequaled by the names of any of the other founding fathers of industrial design, the name of Raymond Loewy radiate a charisma that has attracted public attention throughout the past half century. Loewy's flamboyant lifestyle has included at various times country homes outside Paris, in southern France, Mexico, Long Island, and Palm Springs, as well as luxurious urban apartments in Manhattan and Paris. The worldwide image has been reinforced by his design offices not only in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but also in London, Paris, San Juan, and Sao Paulo, among others.

This matter of image and style is very important because - in combination with a keen business sense, a highly developed imagination, and a rich design talent - it was an important element in generating a sense of excitement about, not only Raymond Loewy, but the new profession of industrial design itself.

Much has been written about the trial by fire the new profession underwent during the Great Depression and how industrial design proved itself by demonstration that in a shrinking market, the product "designed" by an industrial designer would win out over an otherwise similar and equal product. The office of Raymond Loewy provided more than it's share of such demonstration cases - and did so with a flair that reflected credit on the client, firm and designer alike.

Loewy's design philosophy is not a deeply intellectual one. He summarized it with the acronym MAYA (most advanced, yet acceptable). The proliferation of clean, functional, and dynamic products that emerged from the Loewy offices throughout his long career provides testimony to his success in correctly making the prediction "Most advanced, yet acceptable".

Examples of his designs that have become famous include the 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, the 1953 Starliner Coupe and the 1961 Avanti - designs that generated a public interest and acceptance far out of proportion to the company's relative size in the industry; the 1947 line of Hallicrafter radio receivers that conveyed a crisp precision far ahead of their time; the 1929 Gestetner duplicating machine, the S-1 Steam locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad - all landmark designs that were extremely successful and influential in establishing higher design standards in their respective design areas.

It is difficult to measure precisely Loewy's impact on our contemporary environment, but he has certainly had a dynamic and significant one. His continuing vitality and international influence are demonstrated by his being retained as a major industrial design consultant in the 1970's by the Government of the Soviet Union - this as he entered his eighties.

James M Alexander (from "Contemporary Designers" edited by Ann Lee Morgan, St. James Press, London and Chicago, 1985)

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Raymond Loewy and the Studebaker Design Team

Writing of design legend Raymond Loewy in Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of Industrial Design, Mercedes styling chief Bruno Sacco, himself a styling legend, said:

"Three projects, all for Studebaker, have earned Raymond Loewy a place in the history of automobile design: the 1947-52 series, the l953-55 models, and the crowning achievement of the 1962 Avanti. Do we miss a continuous thread of design philosophy in the Studebakers? Is that perhaps where Loewy failed? He was never a man to take small steps; it was in his nature to jump several squares at a time on the checkerboard. And, as his association with Studebaker shows, he managed to carry it off, and left his mark on automobile design."

It is for the work at Studebaker that Raymond Loewy and his Studebaker design team are one of two Honored Designers celebrated at the 1995 Eyes on Classic Design.

Raymond Loewy generally worked with a large staff of colleagues, though few would question the dominance of his personality and his design philosophy. He recognized, as have so many others, that automotive design is team endeavor.

Before contracting with Studebaker, Loewy cut his automotive design teeth working with Hupmobile. The 1932 V-8 Spyder Cabriolet was the first car to carry the Loewy imprimatur and to be built to Loewy's satisfaction. His 1934 Hupmobile designs, though elegant, failed to rescue the company and were discontinued in 1936.

"My association with Studebaker started in 1938 and lasted until 1962," Loewy wrote in his autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone, in which he also stated, "The keynote of my work was simplification."

Prevailing opinion holds that Studebaker hired Raymond Loewy because it simply lacked automobile design talent of the caliber to be found at General Motors, Ford, or Chrysler.

Into the design vacuum at Studebaker, Loewy took his aims of simplicity, making what appeared to be only minor surface adjustments to the existing Studebaker line. Yet, his work resulted in the clean, simple lines found on late 1930s Studebakers and in the 1938 Studebaker being named "Best Looking Car of the Year" by the American Federation of Arts. Loewy's design for the 1942 Studebaker, production of which was halted by World War II, emerged in 1946 looking anything but dated.

Working at Studebaker with Virgil M. Exner, later design vice president at Chrysler, Loewy spent a part of the war years developing design executions for the post-war Studebaker cars. Launched in mid-1946, these Studebaker designs were the product of a less than happy collaboration between Virgil Exner and Loewy, (Exner resigned before the project's completion) but the cars were stunning.

The 1946 Studebakers differed from previous American production cars in that their shape was dictated by an overall design, or architecture, and not by the car's individual components such as fenders, trunk lid, and hood. These cars presaged the "pontoon" shape soon a to be ubiquitous, and the forward-leaning look of the 1946 Studebakers and those that followed established the marque as a style leader, if only temporarily.

In 1950, Loewy gave Studebakers a slightly smoother look that featured the bullet-nose front end. Viewed from the front, these cars had a definite resemblance to an aircraft. This feature disappeared with the end of the 1952 model run.

Working with Studebaker, located in South Bend, Indiana, the Loewy team found that it could design cars without the "help" of prevailing Detroit styling wisdom.

"Thanks to [Studebaker president] Paul Hoffman, I was given the opportunity to design cars liberated from most of Detroit's atavistic influences. No more inbred, incestuous designs; instead, a fresh new approach for a century-old firm was demanded. The body-styling division which I formed at the plant and that bore my name became known in the profession for its talent, spirit, and sense of mission." Loewy wrote in 1951, prior to the appearance of his statement's best evidence.

As planning progressed for the 1953 models that would be the high-water mark for Studebaker styling, Loewy worked with another designer who would make his mark in Detroit. This was Robert Bourke.

The 1953 Studebakers were, as the design world knows, critical styling successes. Their impact carried them as far as the cover of Time magazine. Sadly, the models were not big enough sellers to prevent the need for a merger with Packard in 1954. As lovely to look at as the Hawks and Starlight coupes of this era were, the Loewy team had one more Studebaker ace up its sleeve. This was the Avanti, introduced in 1962 with a fiberglass body, unconventional plane relationships, and a clean treatment of details.

Years later, Loewy said, "If I were to redesign Avanti today, I would keep it much the same."

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Re: Raymond Loewy and Steve Jobs

From Laurence Loewy

Dear Mr. Moore,

I'm Laurence Loewy, daughter of Raymond Loewy; I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your article of January 11th, "Steve Jobs May Be The Raymond Loewy Of Computer Design, But That Doesn't Make Apple The Studebaker of PC Makers".

I wanted to thank you for coming to the defense of my dear father. As a former editor, I thought your article was accurate, thorough and entertaining. Loved your statement, "However, there are a lot worse people to be compared with than Raymond Loewy, who was arguably the greatest American industrial designer of the 20th century."

Also you corrected Mr. Molone who cast Loewy as the head of Studebaker. You reminded your readership that Dad ran his own industrial design firm to which Stude contracted most of its styling and body design work from '38 through '55.

Thanks for pitching Dad's autobiography "Never Leave Well Enough Alone". I hope to see it re issued this year in time for a major Loewy exhibition at the Hagley Museum.

Thanks for linking to my web site www.RaymondLoewy.com

May I add your story to my Loewy link page?

Happy motoring, Laurence Loewy, Ceo Loewy Design

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Virgil Exner joined Raymond Loewy's industrial design firm, Raymond Loewy Associates, in 1938, and as with Robert Bourke and others associated with the 1953 Starliner design, and Tom Kellogg and others who worked with Loewy on the Avanti, Exner had a great deal to do with the the design of the early postwar Studebakers, especially the 1947 Starlight coupe. In 1939, Exner was assigned by Loewy to head the Studebaker account in South Bend, with the major role in design of the postwar Studebaker. In 1944, he was fired by Loewy and hired directly by Studebaker, but Loewy's firm continued as the prime contractor in Studebaker design and styling. In 1949, Exner joined Chrysler as head of advanced styling, where he was responsible for many of the beautiful and groundbreaking styling innovations pioneered by Chrysler Corp. on the '50s.

In "Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of Industrial Design", Mercedes styling chief Bruno Sacco wrote: "Raymond Loewy generally worked with a large staff of colleagues, though few would question the dominance of his personality and his design philosophy. He recognized, as have so many others, that automotive design is team endeavor." Sacco notes that the 1947 - '49 Studebakers "were the product of a less than happy collaboration between Virgil Exner and Loewy."

Raymond Loewy Associates did Studebaker design work from 1938 through 1955, at which time the Studebaker Board of Directors declined to renew Loewy's contract. Loewy was of course invited back in 1961 to design the Avanti.

Brooks Stevens, who was an industrial designer of many accomplishments himself, did work as a design consultant for Studebaker at the end, hired by Studebaker CEO Sherwood Egbert to work on the mainstream Studebakers, including the Lark and Hawk, while Raymond Loewy and his team worked on the Avanti. Stevens most memorable efforts were a major restyle of the Gran Turismo Hawk for the 1962 model year, with a formal squared-off roofline and rear fender line.

Stevens also was responsible for the European-flavored Lark Daytona, and the innovative Lark Wagonaire Station Wagon for 1963 with a sliding roof above the cargo compartment that could turn it into a sort of impromptu pickup truck when needed

When other commitments prevented Loewy from working on some special design projects for Studebaker. Stevens later quoted Egbert saying: "I can't manage to get Loewy in on this one, you'll have to help me..." The results of that project were a trio of Studebaker Larks: a black and pink convertible known as "Mademoiselle;" a vehicle called "Yachtsman," (Stevens was an avid Yachtsman who competed in the America's Cup); and a "Town Car" featuring central roll-over hoop and a vinyl half-roof. Stevens also dressed up a Hawk Gran Turismo for the Chicago Motor Show, but these cars were essentially design exercises for show purposes and never made it to production.

Sherwood Egbert was stricken with cancer shortly thereafter, and replaced by Byers Burlingame. Stevens went on to develop his Excalibur replicar project on a Lark Daytona chassis, The Excalibur prototype, with a supercharged R2 Avanti 289 CID engine was displayed at the New York Auto Show as a "Studebaker SS," but that was an independent effort financed personally by Stevens after Studebaker decided it would not display a car it would never produce.

Stevens went on to form SS Automobiles, which built the Excalibur SS with 327 CID Chevrolet engines. The Excalibur remained in limited production for 24 years.

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Arguably one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, Loewy has been called �the man who shaped America.� He left his mark countless times on everyday culture � from household products, to transportation, to corporate identity.

Loewy was one of the first designers to understand the link between design and the economy. He expressed this connection by stating: �Between two products equal in price, function, and quality, the better looking will outsell the other.� He proved that the success of a product is as dependent on aesthetics as function.

Throughout his career, Loewy�s many successes helped establish the integral role of the industrial designer in the development and marketing of sophisticated manufactured goods. Through his efforts, Loewy helped legitimize industrial design as a profession. Loewy helped establish the first professional organization for industrial designers, the Industrial Designers Society of America, which today is still in existence as the Industrial Designers Society of America [IDSA].

Loewy�s contributions to the design community helped propel industrial design to new heights. He lectured frequently to design students and spent a lot of time in Europe in the 70�s and 80�s training young designers. As a result, a whole new generation of industrial designers found their inspiration in Loewy and his designs. Today, the profession of industrial design is well established on virtually every continent and was even identified in 1998 by Time magazine as one of the top 15 hottest professions of the decade

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Raymond Loewy, one of the principal inventors of modern industrial design, redefined the look of everything from logos to locomotives. For many years Loewy served as the principal designer for the Studebaker Corporation, and in 1961 they called upon him to design a new automobile to save the company. These twelve sketches were sent from Loewy's Paris office to help in the effort, which resulted in the "Avanti," a rare instance in which the merits of a product caused it to survive the failure of the company which produced it.

Loewy's relationship with the Pennsylvania Railroad began in the early 1930s, when he approached railway president Martin W. Clement and voiced his desire to design locomotives. The T-1 design was the last steam engine the Pennsylvania Railroad used before switching to diesel-powered engines.

Drawing on his extensive experience in the design and operation of the automobile, Loewy succinctly sketched the basic elements of this "safety car" design for Cornell University, in order to arrive at a design solution that was both attractive and secure.

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Loewy, Raymond (Packard) An influential designer who did contract work for Studebaker. Some of Loewy's influence will follow Studebaker into the Studebaker-Packard merger. A contract between Studebaker and Loewy, which extends into 1962, follows Studebaker into the Studebaker-Packard merger, and to secure release of that contract Nance will pay Loewy a million dollars in 1955. It is money badly needed elsewhere. McRae, hired from Ford, will replace Loewy.

For more information please read:

www.RaymondLoewy.com

James M. Alexander, Ann Lee Morgan - Contemporary Designers

Ramond Loewy - Road & Track - August 1961

Raymond Loewy - Industrial Design

Raymond Loewy - Never Leave Well Enough Alone

Philippe Tretiack - Raymond Loewy and Streamlined Design

Angela Schoenberger - Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of American Industrial Design

Laura Cordin - Raymond Loewy

Biographies of Prominent Carriage Draftsmen - Carriage Monthly, April 1904

Marian Suman-Hreblay - Dictionary of World Coachbuilders and Car Stylists

Daniel D. Hutchins - Wheels Across America: Carriage Art & Craftsmanship