Raymond Loewy: How his designs defined the modern era

The Studebaker Avanti, Shell Oil logo, and Sears Coldspot refrigerator were all the creations of the iconic industrial designer, Raymond Loewy, whose work spanned 70 years and is honored today by a Google Doodle.

|
Google
The "Father of Industrial Design", Raymond Loewy, designed countless iconic products and is honored today by Google.

In the middle of the 20th century, consumer brands became the symbol of the good life, a nod to technological advancement and peace between years of conflict. Smart branding and products, such as the Shell Oil logo, Studebaker Avanti, and Coca Cola vending machines found a permanent home in consumer history.

And one man’s pen stood behind many of these iconic designs: the pragmatic, yet forward thinking industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Mr. Loewy’s timeless designs are immortalized today in a Google Doodle, paying homage to his partnership with Pennsylvania Railroad, and the 120th anniversary of his birth.

Loewy was born in Paris on November 5, 1893. He served in the French army in World War I and came to America shortly after the war. He lived in New York City, designing windows for Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, and providing fashion illustrations for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. His first big break in the industrial design world came when he designed the Sears Coldspot refrigerator in the '30s, which, with its aluminum shelves and round-edged design, quickly became the icebox du jour.

From there his 60-year career took off spawning hundreds of consumer designs that ended up in the daily lives of consumers across America. Whether it was creating brand logos that remain in place today, such as Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil, or consumer packaging that convinced millions of consumers to purchase products, such as the Lucky Strikes white package and Schick electric razor, his designs were known as simple and fashionable, but most importantly, customer-friendly.

"The main goal is not to complicate the already difficult life of the consumer," he once said.

His designs even accompanied Americans out of this world. From 1967 to 1973 he consulted for NASA’s Saturn-Apollo and Skylab projects, pioneering a porthole that looked toward Earth and designs that simulated gravity.

Though the aesthetic of his products brought him fame, his partnerships with certain companies rocketed his work to true icon status.

He was behind the Greyhound Scenicruiser, the Studebaker Champion and Avanti, and designed four Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives at the height of train travel, as referenced in Tuesday's Doodle. Loewy also worked with the federal government, designing the blue, white, and chrome livery on Air Force One and the United States Postal Service’s eagle logo.

This work earned him a place on the cover of Time Magazine in 1949. After an extensive career, Loewy retired in 1980 and died in 1986. But, as New York Times reporter Susan Heller wrote, his designs are nearly everywhere one looks.

"One can hardly open a beer or a soft drink, fix breakfast, board a plane, buy gas, mail a letter or shop for an appliance without encountering a Loewy creation," she wrote.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Raymond Loewy: How his designs defined the modern era
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/1105/Raymond-Loewy-How-his-designs-defined-the-modern-era
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe