Legends: Raymond Loewy

He can take full credit for the shape of many consumer items developed during the 20th century, including locomotives, ocean liners, sewing machines, photocopiers, cameras, vacuum cleaners, dishes and pencil sharpeners. Loewy’s design work also extended to aircraft, including the supersonic Concorde passenger liner. Along the way, he also found the time to design automobiles. Loewy’s first taste of notoriety came from an award-winning refrigerator design in 1935. A couple of years later, the Loewy studio began a long association with Studebaker, a company that began in 1852 as a horse-drawn wagon maker and had converted to automobile production in the early 1900s. Eventually, Loewy was contracted as Studebaker’s in-house design studio and employed a number of artisans who would eventually move on to influence the look of many other auto manufacturer’s products. By the late 1940s, Loewy-designed post-war Studebakers were considered radical and ground-breaking. In 1955, Loewy parted ways with Studebaker, but was called back in early 1961 to help turn the company around. Within 40 days, Loewy and his team had produced a full-size mock-up of the Avanti (below). Unfortunately, serious quality problems with the car’s fiberglass body created numerous delays and sales fell short of expectations. Loewy carried on with his various design contracts and died at the age of 92 in 1986. But many of his timeless logos and product stylings live on in tribute to one of the greatest commercial artisans of the 20th century.