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PortugalRaymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy
Rédaction : Albert Lallement
THE FRENCH TOUCH!
One of the most famous designers of all, Raymond Loewy turned his attention to the Lancia Flaminia, creating a highly personal interpretation in 1960 called the Loraymo Coupé.
Although he worked mainly for the biggest manufacturers in his adopted country, he did cross the Atlantic from time to time to design some bodies for brands on the Old Continent. Automotive design was one of the most original and creative areas of activity for this talented Franco-American Jack-of-all-trades. Lancia and BMW, both already sold in the United States, were lucky enough to have him, as was the French coachbuilder Pichon & Parat.
The Maestro in front of a sketch evoking the 'reactor' grille that would appear on the 1950 Studebaker range. It was a bold move. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Courtoisie RL studio
With his talent, the strength of his personality, his energy, his flair, his genius for making himself known and gaining recognition for his profession, as well as his ability to make his mark in very different fields, Raymond Loewy dominated the profession he had helped to create, that of industrial designer. More than anyone else, he convinced companies of the importance of design, and his streamlined designs for thousands of consumer goods and their packaging radically changed the way American life looked in the 20th century.
Raymond Loewy and his wife Viola May proudly pose in front of the designer's latest creation, the 1960 Lancia Loraymo, which was to remain his personal car for many years. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Courtoisie RL studio
FASHION TO START WITH
Before becoming one of the pioneers of American industrial design and one of the creators of the modern Streamline, more commonly known as the ocean liner style, Raymond Loewy had a wide range of activities. Raymond Fernand Loewy was born on 5 November 1893 in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. In 1910, he attended the École Duvignau in Lanneau, with the intention of becoming an engineer, but the Great War interfered with his plans.
He served with the Corps of Military Engineering, seconded to the American Expeditionary Force. Discharged from the army in 1919 with the rank of Captain, he crossed the Atlantic to join his older brother Maximilien in New York. He then began a career as an illustrator with the Condé Nast press group, which published well-known fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar.
His first project in industrial design was for Gestetner, a manufacturer of duplicating machines. Things then moved very quickly and he established his first agency, Raymond Loewy, William Snaith, Inc, in New York in 1929, which became Raymond Loewy and Associates in 1944. In the years that followed, he made his mark with striking designs for Hupp Motor Company (his first contact with the automotive industry) in 1930, Sears Roebuck with the Coldspot refrigerator in 1934 and the Pennsylvania Railroad, for which he designed the impressive GG-1 electric locomotive in 1936.
Raymond Loewy featured on the cover of Time magazine on 31 October 1949, illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff, with the headline "Styling the Sales Curve”. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Times / D.R.
A DESIGNER OF SHAPES
It would take a long time to draw up an exhaustive list of all Loewy's creations, as they are so numerous and cover so many different areas.
We have him to thank for the world-famous graphic designs for Coca Cola, Lucky Strike, Shell, Lu, New Man and United Airlines. He also designed many everyday objects, symbols of the "American Way of Life": furniture, crockery, household appliances, etc. The automotive industry was not to be left out, with innovative lines for Studebaker, such as the Starlight (1947), the Starliner (1953) and the Avanti (1962), as well as the Greyhound buses (1954). He also designed the exterior of President John Kennedy's Boeing 707 Air Force One in 1962. In 1972, LIFE magazine named him one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century. In 1980, he returned to live in France, where he died on 14 July 1986.
Restored in the 1990s by the Lancia Museum in Turin, this unique example of the Loraymo is regularly exhibited at classic car shows such as Rétromobile. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Archives & Collections D.R.
THE LORAYMO
At the 47th Paris Motor Show, in early October 1960, Raymond Loewy presented his interpretation of the Flaminia coupé. The bodywork was designed by Rocco Motto a Turin-based aluminium specialist whom Loewy was keen to boost, and on whose stand the car was exhibited.
This, his only design for a Lancia model, was a master stroke, even if the design was not unanimously appreciated at the time. This unique model was called Loraymo, an acronym of the designer's first and last names (LOewy RAYMOnd), which also happened to be the telegraph address of his design studio in New York. The Loraymo was based on the chassis of the Flaminia and powered by the Type 823.00 2.5-litre V6 engine, whose power was increased from 119 bhp to almost 150 bhp after modification by Nardi.
The Loraymo was designed with sweeping curves inspired by the Coca-Cola bottle that Raymond Loewy had helped to modernise in his day. This shape, which became very popular in American car design from the mid-1960s onwards, is a distinctive signature of the Loewy studio and still somewhat unusual when the Loraymo was presented. From the start, Raymond Loewy created this unique Lancia as his personal car, which he would use for many years, first in Europe and later in the United States. It was then sold and lost until found in the late 1980s by the Lancia Club of America. The Loraymo was then donated to the Lancia Museum in Turin, and has since been perfectly restored.
Raymond Loewy and Studebaker chairman Sherwood Egbert with the 1962 Avanti coupé, a model that represented the automotive " perfect dream " that the designer was looking for. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Studebaker
A particular view on the world
Raymond Loewy had ideas and opinions about everything around him. Starting with the car, which in his opinion " should look fast and, even when stationary, imply forward movement through its lines".
Generally speaking, he said that "Ugliness doesn't sell well", which was to remain his commercial motto throughout his career and was the title of his memoirs published in French by Gallimard in 1953
Above all, however, we owe him his highly avant-garde vision of design, summed up in four letters: MAYA, for Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. His principle was to learn to design for the future, while simultaneously balancing it with the current level of skills and mindset of the intended users. He succeeded in doing this perfectly with the modernisation of the Coca-Cola bottle, the creation of the Shell oil company logo and that of the ready-to-wear brand New Man, all of which have remained completely timeless.
A TRIBUTE TO RAYMOND LOEWY
In the wake of Raymond Loewy's death, the international media unanimously hailed his talent and his immeasurable contributions to industrial design. The New York Times journalist Susan Heller Anderson put it eloquently: " It is almost impossible to open a beer or a soft drink, prepare breakfast, get on a plane, send a letter through the post or go shopping without encountering one of Loewy's creations. Demonstrated on many occasions, Loewy's graphic concepts continue to be relevant well after their creation, making him rightly remembered as the father of industrial design.
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