May 17, 2007
The Loewy Ouvre
I just love Raymond Loewy. The greatest industrial designer of the 20th century. Harley Earle sucks his nutsack in comparison. An immigrant who redefined form over function, and then convinced you function was form. I'm not going to spill much ink giving him paeans, I'll just let you enjoy his work.
Firstly, the 1939 S1 locomotive he designed for the Pennsylvania Railroad:
How sweet is that? Remember, this was the new diesel engine. Before Loewy, locomotives looked like this:
Ginormous improvement, iffen you like sleek. And I do.
How about this?
I think Loewy liked logos just as much as more intensive, industrial design. He really put his best into 'em.
I give you the 1963 Studebaker Avanti, though:
And this:
Just a smattering of Loewy. I can't put his entire works out here. But: he designed the interiors of the Concorde, and Skylab. Just a ton of shit. A prolific fellow. My only bitch? His 1971 reformation of the Royal Dutch Shell logo. From this:
to this:
That don't work for me! Foul ball! Too much '70's bullshit in that. I think Raymond was old, and finally susceptible to what passed for 'stylized' in the late '60's, early '70's. Bu that Shell Oil redo was what attracted me to him in the first place, having watched a late '70's Sixty Minutes on him.
Anyway, Google the man. Loll in his designs like a whore in a bubble bath. Or whatever your particular fantasy is. It doesn't have to match mine.
And appreciate, if you decide, the genius of Raymond Loewy.
Actually I love both trains. I think trains are cool... at least the old ones.
The Studebaker though... those are just strange looking. *grin*
Posted by: Teresa at May 17, 2007 8:28 PMI am with you. Loewy was a genius. I do like what he did with the Shell logo. My first encounter with Loewy was actually an old Studebaker that a neighbor was restoring. I got to reading and was hooked.
I've not visited the O Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, VA yet (the former Norfolk & Western train station); but I've been told they did a great job restoring many of the areas to the way Loewy designed them.
Posted by: The Maximum Leader at May 17, 2007 10:41 PMThat Loewy diesel locomotive...damn, it looks like the vibrator the 50-Foot Woman might've used. Wotta beauty. The locomotive, too.
The man was a genius, no doubt about it.
Posted by: Elisson at May 17, 2007 11:17 PMExcept that ain't a diesel locomotive. It's a steamer tarted up with a streamlined skin, and other people did better jobs of that than Loewy. The Avanti was ahead of its time; proven by the fact that it stayed in production long after Studabaker foled, but his best auto design was the '53 Stude.
Posted by: triticale at May 18, 2007 6:35 PMI like the '39, but I'm sort of with Elisson on the whole phallic thing. Damn, that's a Fruedian choo-choo.
Posted by: Rosie at May 18, 2007 6:59 PMHoly Cow!!!
My daddy used to smoke Lucky Strike.
What a flash back!
Loewy may have designed the Avanti, but the man whose name I bear brought it to market, a distant uncle.
Posted by: og at May 18, 2007 11:58 PMI will suggest googling Loewy to my daughter, since she is interested in design. She wants to be an architect.
Posted by: Peggy U at May 19, 2007 5:52 PMNeighbors have one of those Avantis, and it sits in the overflow parking at the condo. Nice to know who designed it. Too bad it's just sitting there, tires rotting away under it.
The train just beats all.
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at May 20, 2007 12:21 AM