Topical Guide 334
Mark Dorset
Design: Automotive: Innovative
Innovation: Resistance to
Historical Personages, Real and Fictional
IN TIME, prosperity, at least relative prosperity, returned. The new management at Studebaker strengthened the company by eliminating weaknesses. … By 1935, Studebakers were selling well again, and the company was turning a profit. …
Studebaker then took a step the importance of which can’t be exaggerated. The company hired Raymond Loewy, the gifted visionary, as its chief designer. Loewy’s arrival ushered in a period of daring, distinctive design that set Studebakers emphatically apart from other makes. In 1950 he and the team he directed would produce the famous bullet-nosed models and, a few years later, the beautiful Starliner coupes, but in the opinion of more than one Studebaker historian, the Loewy designs would lead, ultimately, to the demise of the company.Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 12
Raymond Loewy (1893-1986)
Loewy was born 5 November, 1893, in Paris, France, where he grew up. He studied at the Université de Paris from 1910, served in the French Corps of Engineers from 1914 to 1918, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre four times. He received an engineering degree from the École de Laneau in 1918. In 1929 Loewy opened his own design office with the advent of his first industrial design commission, the housing for the Gestetner duplicating machine. His designs would ultimately revolutionize the industry. Working as a consultant for more than 200 firms, he created product designs for everything from cigarette packs and refrigerators, to cars and spacecrafts. His legacy includes such notable creations as the Lucky Strike cigarette package, the GG1 and S1 locomotives, the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, and the Studebaker Avanti, Champion and Starliner.From Horses to Horsepower: Studebaker Helped Move a Nation (via Smithsonian Libraries)
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