We can undoubtedly say that Raymond Loewy is a legend; his remarkable designing work revolutionized the industrial designing of the world and had showed the humankind innovative ways of graphic designing. I personally am a great fan of this designing legend and decided to write few lines about this great personality.
Raymond Fernand Loewy, who is often praised with the taglines like “The Man Who Shaped America”, “The Father of Streamlining”, or “The Father of Industrial Design”, was definitely the most powerful industrial designer of 20th century. He literally overturned the industry through his remarkable work.
The official website Raymondloewy.org praises him with the passage:
“The first time you drank a bottle of Coca-Cola his bottle shape became ingrained in your memory. From the prestigious design work he completed on John F. Kennedy’s Air Force One to the design of the familiar Greyhound bus, Raymond Loewy’s efforts showed no limitations. Raymond Loewy has long been regarded as the most famous of American Industrial Designers.”
Loewy was born in Paris on November 5, 1893, and started his career as a fashion illustrator but later on dedicated his talent to the dynamic field of industrial designing. He was very bright since childhood and started to show his abilities at very young age, he once said about his childhood:
“As a boy I had liked both drawing and physics, and I always abhorred the role of being a spectator. In 1908, when I was 15, I designed, built and flew a toy model airplane which won the then-famous James Gordon Bennett Cup. By 16 I had discovered that design could be fun and profitable, and this lesson has never been lost on me.”
He had empowered the brands of many famous companies by designing their logos and products. His most famous designs are Studebaker Avanti, Pennsylvania S-1 Locomotive, Coca-Cola bottle, Air Force One, NASA Sky Lab and Space Shuttle interiors, Lucky Strike, Greyhound Bus, and Shell and Exxon logos. Raymond Loewy’s official site tells more about his design work with the following lines:
“Some of the better known companies who sought his influence included Revlon, Faberge, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Hanes, Levis, Butterick, Bulova, Omega, Mont Blanc, Seth Thomas, Rosenthal, Wyeth Furniture, Frigidaire, Formica, Koehler, IBM, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Thalhimer’s, Bloomingdales’s, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Studebaker, BMW and Jaguar.”
At one time he said after the sterling success of S-1 Locomotives:
“. I waited for the S-1 to pass through at full speed. I stood on the platform and saw it coming from the distance at 120 miles per hour. It flashed by me like a steel thunderbolt, the ground shaking under me, in a blast of air that almost sucked me into its whirlwind. Approximately a million pounds of locomotive were crashing through near me. I felt shaken and overwhelmed by an unforgettable feeling of power, by a sense of pride at what I had helped to create. I had, after all, contributed something to a great nation that had taken me in and that I loved so deeply. And I had come a long, happy way myself from my start in fashion advertising. I had found my way of life.”
Many articles have been published and many people have praised Loewy with great words like these lines from “For Everything, a Sleek Package” by Benjamin Genocchio, published in New York Times in May 27 2007, Benjamin says:
“The list of Loewy’s clients and design creations is astonishing; I would go so far as to say that anyone who lived in America from the 1940s to the 1970s at one time or another owned or used a product designed by him. He streamlined Greyhound buses and Coca-Cola bottles and designed both companies’ logos. He designed the Lucky Strike cigarette pack, Studebaker cars and the logos for Shell Oil, Nabisco and Exxon, all of which are in use today. He designed ferries, ocean liners and airplanes. He even streamlined the modern locomotive.”
Another line from New York Times:
“From toothbrushes to automobiles, Raymond Loewy’s streamlined designs of thousands of consumer goods and their packaging radically changed the look of American life.”
And what Glenn Porter said in his article “Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture”:
“Through his talent, the force of his personality, his charm, his energy, his flair, his Parisian air, his genius for promoting himself and his profession, and his ability to intermediate so well between so many worlds, Raymond Loewy bestrode the profession he had helped created. More than any other individual, he was responsible for convincing business of the importance of design.”
Studebaker Avanti was the most significant design by Loewy. Avanti had made a great success and left long lasting impression to his career. An article “Designing the Fabulous Avanti”, published in Hemmings Classic Car on January 2006 stated:
The Avanti didn’t save Studebaker. But Loewy’s Avanti remains one of the most beautiful and exciting cars ever created. Egbert summed up Loewy’s Avanti best in an advertisement where he boldly stated, “You are looking at a new take-off point for the American automobile. It is the Avanti by Studebaker. It is a prestige car, a fast car and certainly the most advanced car produced in America today.”
No doubt Raymond Loewy talent was remarkable. His designs are still used by the companies which are now making extraordinary businesses with the same classic designs. His design work is a great inspiration for the present-day designing and one can learn lot of design creativity through his work, as these lines by Raymond provide idea to the graphic designers:
“I once said that the most difficult things to design are the simplest. For instance, to improve the form of a scalpel or a needle is extremely difficult, if not impossible. To improve the appearance of a threshing machine is easy. There are so many components on which one can work.”
Above lines are certainly not enough for describing the inner talent of the famous designer, even thousands of pages are not enough. The name Raymond Loewy is the name of credibility and authority in the world of graphic designing, and his name will always be remembered in the circle of graphic designers.
