After a brief but promising career as a
fashion illustrator, Raymond Loewy dedicated his talent to the
field of industrial design. Loewy's creative genius was innate,
and his effect on the industry was immediate. He literally revolutionized
the industry, working as a consultant for more than 200 companies
and creating product designs for everything from cigarette packs
and refrigerators, to cars and spacecrafts. Loewy lived by his
own famous MAYA principle - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. He
believed that, "The adult public's taste is not necessarily
ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements
if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they
have been conditioned into accepting as the norm."
A popular lecturer as well, Loewy spoke at institutions such
as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University,
and the University of Leningrad. He founded three design companies:
Raymond Loewy and Associates, New York; Raymond Loewy International,
London; and Compagnie de I'Esthetique Industrielle, Paris. His
writings include The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937), the
autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) and Industrial
Design (1951).
A global presence
Raymond Loewy launched his career in industrial design in 1929
when Sigmund Gestetner, a British manufacturer of duplicating
machines, commissioned him to improve the appearance of a mimeograph
machine. In three days 28-year-old Loewy designed the shell
that was to encase Gestetner duplicators for the next 40 years.
In the process, he helped launch a profession that has changed
the look of America.
The Gestetner duplicator was the first of countless items transformed
by streamlining, a technique that Loewy is credited with originating.
Calling the concept "beauty through function and simplification,"
Loewy spent over 50 years streamlining everything from postage
stamps to spacecrafts. His more famous creations include the
Lucky Strike cigarette package, the GG1 and S1 locomotives,
the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, the John F. Kennedy memorial
postage stamp, the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V, and Skylab,
the Greyhound bus and logo, the Shell International logo, the
Exxon logo, the U.S. Postal Service emblem, a line of Frigidaire
refrigerators, ranges, and freezers, and the Studebaker Avanti,
Champion and Starliner.
By 1951, his industrial design firm was so prolific that he
was able to claim, "the average person, leading a normal
life, whether in the country, a village, a city, or a metropolis,
is bound to be in daily contact with some of the things, services,
or structures in which R.L.A [Raymond Loewy Associates] was
a party during the design or planning stage."
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