Raymond Loewy

French-born American industrial designer

Raymond Fernand Loewy (November 5 1893July 14 1986) was one of the best-known industrial designers of the 20th century.

Quotes

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  • Industrial design keeps the customer happy, his client in the black and the designer busy.
    • Raymond Loewy (ca. 1949); Cited in: Paul Greenhalgh (1993) Quotations and Sources on Design and the Decorative Arts. p. 117
  • A lot of people are open to new things, as long as they look like the old ones.
    • Raymond Loewy (1951); As cited in: Angèle H. Reinders et al. The Power of Design. p. 93
  • Is it responsible to camouflage one of America's most remarkable machines as a piece of gaudy merchandise? Form, which should be the clean- cut expression of mechanical excellence has become sensuous and organic.
    • Raymond Loewy 1950s, cited in: Karal Ann Marling, ‎Donald J. Bush, ‎Walker Art Center (1989) Autoeroticism. p. 16
    • Loewy commented on the new generation automobiles, after having designed the Studebaker of 1953, which according to Loewy looked like "jukeboxes on wheels."
  • I believe one should design for the advantage of the largest mass of people, first and always. That takes care of ideologies and sociologies.
    • Raymond Loewy, cited in: William Marling (1998) The American Roman Noir: Hammett, Cain, and Chandler. p. 279
  • Design is too important to be left to designers.
    • Attributed to Raymond Loewy in: Adam Richardson (2010) Innovation X, p. 184

Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951)

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  • This book is the story of a young man who came to America to make a living, and simply happened to do so in a profession which he helped to create.
    • Introduction
  • I never expected that one could fall so completely in love with a nation and a people. I already knew that very soon I would thrill at everything American, love everything American, perhaps blindly, but fervently and forever. I still remember how thrilled I was at the sight of the flag. After all these years, every time I see the Stars and Stripes in the breeze, I get the same emotional feeling. Aesthetically speaking, it is perfect. One of the outstanding "designs" of all times. It may be that a nation gets the flag it deserves.
    • Chapter 1

About Raymond Loewy

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  • If there is a designer whose name is synonymous with industrial design it is Raymond Loewy (1893-1986).
    • Raymond Loewy. Industrial Design, Overlook Press, 1988. General info
  • What Charles and Ray Eames are to furniture design, Raymond Loewy is to industrial design -- the modern master
    • Raymond Loewy. Industrial Design, Overlook Press, 1988. General info
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