HEADS AND CUTS AT BOTTOM OF RELEASE

 

Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture

 

By Frances McQueeney-Jones Mascolo

LEXINGTON, MASS. — From the very beginning, man has always sought ways to improve the wheel. And, like the wheel, nearly every object created has evolved from its initial concept through a continuum of refinement. Most often dictated by use, function and taste, objects are presided over by artists, artisans and designers.

By the early decades of the Twentieth Century, manufacturers wanting to popularize their products turned to a new group of designers who incorporated market research and the emerging science of human factors in their quest to produce the perfect combination of style and functionality. Providing a platform for the new, sleek, worldly goods, the 1925 Exposition Internationale des arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris and other expositions were widely received, whetting the American appetite for the modern.

At the forefront of the stylish Modern movement in America was French-born Raymond Fernand Loewy (1893–1986), who successfully tapped into the nascent American fascination with industrial design. Celebrating the period and Loewy’s achievements is the exhibition “Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture,” on view at the National Heritage Museum through March 23.

Loewy was the Twentieth Century manifestation of a creative professional, arriving on US shores at the time some describe as the beginning of consumption engineering, according to Regina Lee Blaszcyk of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Del., which organized the traveling exhibit.

Born in Paris, Loewy studied engineering, served in the French army in World War I and came to the United States to seek employment as an engineer. Despite his engineering training, Loewy demonstrated an innate creativity early in life. In his 1951 autobiography, Never Leave Well Enough Alone, Loewy described his dissatisfaction with the French government-issue military uniform. His solution was to fashionably custom tailor the uniform to suit himself — nipping here, tucking there.

He also delineated his improvements to life on the frontlines. In one instance, he and his comrades built a dugout that he furnished with two chairs, red carpet, wallpaper, one slightly cracked mirror, drapery, pillows and magazines for the enjoyment of any and all who cared to stop by. It became a popular place. He planted the area with masses of geraniums and posted a carefully lettered sign “Studio de la Rue de la Paix.”

A chance encounter aboard the SS France enroute to New York in 1919 to seek work as an engineer altered the course of his life. A shipboard auction to benefit victims of shipwrecks requested contributions from passengers. As Loewy, recently released from the French army, was traveling with his entire possessions — one suitcase, a trench coat, a well-tailored, well-worn captain’s uniform and $40 — he had little to spare. He improvised and produced a sketch of a young woman aboard ship that brought an impressive sum from the British consul in New York, Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong.

Impressed with the quality of the illustration, Armstrong gave Loewy a letter of introduction to Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. After arriving in New York City, Loewy initially set up as a fashion illustrator and soon progressed to become a window designer for Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s. He used his first paycheck to buy a new suit, his second, a tuxedo.

In America, Loewy was quick to integrate his engineering training and his natural artistic eye. He understood that good design was essential to a product; its purpose was to render the object marketable and desirable. He further understood the components of good design: form was important, but functionality and ease of use would cement the consumer’s decision to buy. Barely ten years after he arrived in America, his industrial design firm, Raymond Loewy and Associates, was well established.

The practice of industrial design in America arose from the depression when manufacturers and department store heads explored new ways to promote sales.

Industrial design, described by some as “consumption engineering,” was the application of creative design to everyday products. It blossomed at the same time as advertising gained professional status, and they, along with fashion forecasting and color styling, became interdependent. Practitioners turned to behavioral psychologists, such as Ernest Dichter, whose studies of consumer behavior and the innovation of focus groups and surveys became essential to manufacturing and other businesses.

Loewy and other early industrial designers, such as Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey and Walter Dorwin Teague, made use of Dichter’s findings. They revitalized the engineering and manufacturing of products focusing on those principles, as well as on usability and ergonomic factors.

Loewy is considered “the father of streamlining,” an evolution of Art Deco that incorporated elongation, mobility, speed, efficiency and luxury that was the vanguard of design from the 1920s through the 1960s. While the new designs were innovative and appealing, they were seldom cutting edge, since studies had shown that consumers preferred the new without the edge. Market studies also revealed that consumerism was driven by change. Whether the desire for the new is innate or market-driven remains a subject of debate.

Loewy expressed his own aesthetic in the acronym, MAYA, or “most advanced yet acceptable.” He applied it to every object he considered — from toothbrush to pencil sharpener to the Studebaker to the interiors of Air Force One and NASA’s Skylab. He understood and responded to the basic need for glamour and modernity on the part of Twentieth Century citizens. His career spanned more than five decades and made an impact on nearly every aspect of American business, particularly on the manufacture, production and marketing of consumer goods. His international reach included Raymond Loewy International in London and the Paris-based Compagnie de I’Esthetique Industrielle that he opened in 1952.

Loewy’s first design commission, which came in 1929, was the redesign of the Gestetner duplicating machine, a device that worked well but was awkward and complicated. At the request of Sigmund Gestetner, Loewy completed his design in three days, streamlining it and rendering it easier to use, and the product remained in production for the next 40 years.

Loewy’s output was prodigious and consistent. He designed a bottle for Coca-Cola, the interiors of Air Force One, the Lucky Strike packet, the Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, the 1951 Studebaker Champion and the Avanti, which remained in production from June 1962 until December 1963 and was the only automobile to be exhibited in the Louvre. Raymond Loewy Associates created designs for other automobile manufacturers, including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Jaguar and BMW. Loewy’s personal vehicle for a time was a sleek and elegant pearl white 1957 BMW 507 that he designed. It was one of a series of experimental cars he designed as potential production vehicles. Although none went into production, those designs influenced the creation of the Avanti.

The Pennsylvania Railroad was a Loewy client for two decades, during which time he designed the GG1, the S1 and the T1 locomotives, along with a waste basket, which, in time-honored bureaucratese, was called a “refuse receptacle.” His 1936 GG1 electric locomotive was innovative for its welded exterior, which precluded the use of rivets but also made it hard to service.

Sears Roebuck retained Loewy in 1934 to redesign the Coldspot refrigerator, which appeared in 1928. He gave it a streamlined appearance and introduced the use of lightweight aluminum sliding shelving that did not rust. The Coldspot went from tenth place in sales to fourth place and remained in production until 1976.

Other clients included Exxon, Shell and the US Postal Service, for whom Loewy created logos; NASA, for whom he conducted habitability studies of Skylab and the Space Shuttle; major department stores; fashion magazines; cameras; cruise lines; Cushman’s; United Airlines; watch and clock makers Seth Thomas, Bulova and Omega; and Rosenthal china. Loewy wrote of the profound influence of a 1951 trip to Japan that he claimed influenced the rest of his career. He became governed by the need for clear, harmonious line, subtle highlights and shadows and the value of understatement, all of which are reflected in his later work.

When the Formica Corporation reintroduced its biomorphic boomerang pattern, originally created in 1950 by Brooks Stevens, it hired Loewy, who updated it and gave it new colors. It swept the nation.

Another color transformation occurred when Loewy was challenged by the president of the American Tobacco Company in 1940 to improve the packaging of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Loewy changed the background color of the pack from dark green to white, reducing the production costs, and printed the familiar red logo on both sides of the pack. The 1942 marketing campaign “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War” suggested that the green ink had been eliminated because the copper used to make it was needed for the war effort. Not so: chromium was used to make green ink. Market studies revealed that the redesigned clean white package modernized the cigarette and increased its appeal to women. The patriotic aspect did not hurt, however.

Loewy brought much to the United States when he arrived, and he derived much as well. A charming and dapper man who loved art and design, good food and speed — and for whom elegant tailoring was paramount — Loewy was named one of America’s ten best dressed men. Time magazine gave him a cover in 1949 and Life named him one of the most influential Americans of the Twentieth Century. He was as glamorous as his designs. He loved women, married twice and lived large in New York, Palm Springs, Calif., and France, dying at the age of 92.

The National Heritage Museum is at 33 Marrett Road. For information, 781-861-6559 or www.monh.org.

‘Raymond Loewy: Designs For A Consumer Culture’

 

The Designs Of Raymond Loewy

 

 

WEB

Avanti sketch

Studebaker fastback sketch by Raymond Loewy, 1965.

Cover 04

Loewy is pictured at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York with the S1 steam locomotive that he designed for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

House Palm Springs

Shown in this model for the 1947 Loewy residence at Palm Springs, Calif., called Taliente, is the waist-deep pool that extended into the living room. It was a frequent site of cocktail parties, such as when actor William Powell fell in and stood upright with his cocktail in his hand. Loewy, ever the gracious host, jumped in and called for another round of drinks. The three-bedroom house had a separate studio where Loewy worked after closing his New York office.

Loewy Miami

The debonair Loewy strolling in Miami.

Cabinet

Designed by Loewy, circa 1968, is the DF2000 cabinet.

Pencil sharpener

The sleek, streamlined pencil sharpener was patented in 1934, but never produced.

Boat kometa

Loewy-designed hydrofoil rendering, 1965.

Broiler

The Loewy-designed Broil-Quik Super Chef broiler-rotisserie, 1954, metal, glass and plastic.

Coca-Cola dispenser, 1947

Raymond Loewy and Associates designed a streamlined Coca-Cola dispenser in 1947, larger and taller versions of the original Coke bottle, packaging, coolers and an updated delivery truck.

Dishes

Loewy-designed Form 2000 china service for Rosenthal china, circa 1950.

Frigidaire 1940

Loewy designed entire product lines. A 1945 photograph of a conventional storefront for Frigidaire illustrated the appliances he designed and suggests selling settings, which in turn delineate the range of his talents.

Glasses

Loewy created the “Queen of the Nile” eyeglass frames for Titmus Optical Co., in 1963, the year in which the movie Cleopatra appeared and things perceived Egyptian were all the rage.

PRR interior

In addition to designing locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad, Loewy offices designed passenger car interiors during the 1930s and updated them after World War II. The firm even designed the menus. The image depicts a 1947 redesign of a lounge and bar car.

Prr – k4

A 1936 photograph illustrating the stark differences between Loewy’s streamlined locomotives and a standard Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive of the period.

Radio New World

The Colonial “New World” dual wave radio with a built-in aerial appeared around 1933. It was produced in three colors of Bakelite — brown, black and ivory — with 22K gold plated trim. Each color was priced differently, resulting in differing levels of prestige for the buyer.

Silverware set

The sterling silver flatware in the Discovery pattern, designed in 1951 for Wallace, embodied the Loewy philosophy of combining practicality, utility and beauty. The pieces are well balanced and sparsely decorated without being severe.

Studebaker 1953

An advertisement for the Loewy-designed Studebaker Commander V-8 Regal Starlight Coupe from 1953.

Time, Loewy cover, October 31, 1949

When Loewy appeared on the cover of Time in 1949, it was a measure of the prominence of industrial design in American life and of his emergence as the leading figure in the field.

Train streamlined

An early conceptual image depicting a Loewy-designed streamlined passenger train.