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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.07.16 16:06l 60 Lines 2874 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 1058_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 14
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 160714/1356Z 1058@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.12
1986
"Father of Streamlining" Raymond Loewy dies
Raymond Loewy, the hugely influential industrial designer who put
his mark on the American automobile industry with groundbreaking
vehicles such as the Studebaker Champion, Starliner and Avanti,
dies on this day in 1986 at his home in Monte Carlo at the age of
92.
Born in France, Loewy served as an engineer in the French army
during World War I before completing his degree in engineering
and moving to New York City. He had found success as a fashion
illustrator by 1929, when Sigmund Gestetner, a British
manufacturer of duplicating machines, commissioned him to improve
the appearance of his company's product. Loewy revamped the look
of the Gestetner duplicator, covering its protruding parts with a
smooth shell mounted on a simple base. The design's success
earned him a product design job at the Hupp Motor Company, where
he began his long association with American automobile
manufacturers.
Loewy advocated longer, lighter vehicles that would be more
fuel-efficient, a bias that was ahead of its time and clashed
with the prevailing attitudes in Detroit. Among his design
contributions over the years were slanted windshields, built-in
headlights and wheel covers. The Loewy-designed 1947 Studebaker
Champion, was dubbed the "coming or going" Studebaker, as it
looked very similar whether viewed from the front or the back.
His 1953 Starliner Coupe made a splash with its clean lines,
lightweight body and relative lack of chrome_quite a contrast
from the large, shiny vehicles popular in that era. (In 1972, a
poll of American car stylists would pick the Starliner as the
industry's best: As Automotive News announced, "The 1953
Studebaker, a long-nosed coupe, with little trim and an air of
motion about it, was acclaimed the top car of all time.") Loewy
also designed the classic Avanti and Avanti II sports cars for
Studebaker.
Founded in the 1930s, Raymond Loewy Associates grew into the
largest industrial design firm in the world. Among Loewy's other
famous designs were the Lucky Strike cigarette package, the
slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, the U.S. Postal Service emblem and
the Exxon logo. His signature streamlined look spread to hundreds
of products, from toothbrushes and ballpoint pens to
refrigerators, but was particularly influential in the
transportation industry. Loewy went from streamlining the trash
receptacles at New York's Pennsylvania Station to designing the
first all-welded locomotive (in 1937). Loewy also designed the
modern Greyhound bus (and logo), the interior of NASA's Saturn I,
Saturn V, and Skylab spacecraft, and Air Force One, which he
redesigned for President John F. Kennedy, giving it the sleek
white missile-like exterior it has today.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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