Raymond Loewy: Influential American Industrial Designer

Raymond Loewy (1893 – 1986) arrived in the United States in 1929, just in time for the great depression. The beginning of the depression was a fortuitous time for a talented designer with new ideas to arrive in the United States. The old design aesthetic was disappearing with the collapsing economy. Manufacturers wanted to stimulate demand for their products by offering customers new designs, and Loewy had an abundance of them with the ego to match. His mother had always told him, “It is better to be envied than pitied.”

It is better to be envied than pitied. Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy Biography

His first design was that of the Gestetner duplicator, which would remain unchanged for 40 years. His Coldspot refrigerator with non-rusting aluminium shelves won an international design prize in 1937. More impressively, it won over hundreds of thousands of American consumers in the tough markets of the 1930s.

The International Harvesters Truck was the first all-welded locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad. (He started with the railroads by designing rubbish bins.

Raymond Loewy Shell Skin Designer

He was accused of being a shell(skin) designer, starting with the machine and then enclosing it. He replied, “But in many cases, the shell is essential.” A locomotive without a shell would be non-functional.

Loewy’s best-known, most innovative, and influential design was the 1953 Studebaker Starliner. A light, simple, sleek design was introduced when other cars were sprouting tail fins. He felt he alienated the design industry by suggesting that cars should be lightweight and compact.

By his death, Loewy had outlived many of his designs. Raymond Loewy was an extraordinary designer and a highly successful businessman in a game with overtones of art. He was able to get Americans to consume. His approach to design, at its core, was simple,

“What I had instinctively believed was being proved by hard sale figures. You take two products with the same function, the same quality and the same price; the better-looking one will outsell the other.”

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Tretiack, P. (1999). Raymond Loewy (Universe of Style). New York: Universe/Vendome. AbeBooks

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